Red and Blue Makes Purple
by Coffeetailor
Summary: Fighting Sasuke,Naruto nearly died,Kyuubi too.Shinigami told the 4th he would keep Kyuubi sealed,and the dead can't contain or be contained.Bringing the two together into one being in another world,he joined them to keep the seal intact.NarutoGW crossover
1. Death and Rebirth

A/N: I know I shouldn't be starting another fic at this point, but I couldn't help it. I was stranded in a Miami condo watching my Imouto reinact the Uchiha massacre while reading Gundam Wing fics when this little demon popped into my mind. It had me be the throat and was threatening to take away my coffee, I swear. Well, since it's here, I hope you enjoy this new brain-spawn of mine. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I own neither Gundam Wing nor Naruto, because if I did, you know that all of the characters would be happy nymphomaniacs by now.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter One

Death and Rebirth

"_Chidori_!"

"_Rasengan_!"

There was a mighty boom as the two attacks met, and a pause as though the world held its breath before they began to push against each other, one sphere of chakra trying to defeat the other as much as their wielders were. Two pairs of red eyes stared at each other from the transformed faces of Sasuke and Naruto, neither willing to yield.

/Kyuubi, I need more chakra!/ the blond called frantically to his demonic tenant. He could feel himself slipping.

The voice that replied sounded just as frightened as he was. /I've given you as much as you can handle! Any more and it'll kill us./

Naruto's heart beat sped faster as the chidori moved closer. /So will _that_! I'm willing to chance it./

/Remove the seal./

Inside the corridors of his mind, he stared up at the fox with eyes wide. "_What_? I can't-"

Kyuubi growled. "It's our only chance. Remove it!"

Steeling himself, Naruto reached up. At the same moment his fingers reached paper, his rasengan flickered and died, meaning that two more things happened at once. The fox demon surged from his cage to surround him in fur and power, and Sasuke's chidori hit and went through his chest.

The Uchiha froze, unbelieving, as Naruto spasmed, impaled on his hand. His cursed form bled away, unattended. What had he _done_?

The force of the impact sent both of them back to the ledge the blond had leapt from, Sasuke unable to pull away as he held himself above his former comrade.

"Kami-sama, what have I done?" he whispered in horror, finally tearing his hand out of Naruto's chest and pressing both over the gaping wound in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. "Naruto! Naruto! Open your eyes, damn it!"

Amazingly, Naruto complied, but the eyes that Sasuke saw were neither the bright blue of the loud ninja or the slit red of his trapped demon, but a combination of the two in specks of each color swirling around as though trying to take over.

As the two colors began to blend, Naruto weakly raised a hand to touch Sasuke's cheek, tears running down both of theirs. "Sa- Sasuke…"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Sasuke said, babbling apologies for the first time in his life. "Don't go, please. Live and I'll come back, I promise. Just don't die."

But Naruto only smiled, his eyes completely violet. Then he began to glow.

Some unknown force started to pull Naruto away from him, and Sasuke only allowed himself a moment of shock before he was grabbing onto his closest friend, trying to keep it from taking him. "You can't have him!"

Kakashi broke through the trees in time to see Sasuke thrown back from a massive concentration of chakra, so thick in the air that he couldn't see who or what was generating it.

Shaking off the shock of impact, Sasuke charged again, this time having to run up the cliff wall and leap, for the glowing mass had risen into the air, clearly intent on flying away.

"Sasuke, where's Naruto?" Kakashi shouted in worry.

The boy's eyes were panicked as he turned his head to see their sensei even as he grasped the shape of a hand within the chakra sphere and hung onto it as he was lifted from the ground. "Kakashi! Help me! It's trying to take him!"

_That_ was Naruto? But before he could reach them, the chakra and the light it produced began to fade. Sasuke cried out in horror as Naruto's hand began to dissolve from his grip. At the last second, a cold rectangle was pressed into his hand. Soon, the sphere was gone and it had taken Naruto with it.

Sasuke dropped into the water with a splash before he could think enough to climb onto the surface. Kakashi stopped several feet away, where he stood in silence. Swallowing, the Uchiha heir looked down at his hand. Pale and bloody fingers clenched around Naruto's hitai-ate. (1)

"I'll go to Oto and become stronger," Sasuke said, not moving his gaze. "Then, I'll return. Tell Sakura and the others that I'm sorry."

There was nothing for Kakashi to do other than nod as he watched his student leave. What he didn't know was that Sasuke had a reason to return. The eyes he'd seen reflected in the engraved plate had only possessed three tomoe. He didn't have the madara. Naruto was alive.

Shinigami watched, silent and invisible, until both shinobi had left. Two souls sat in his hands, unaware of what was happening as they slowly merged. Before the process was complete, he carried them across the worlds, moving into the skies above a blue world already in the midst of war.

The fourth hokage hadn't known just how powerful a deal he'd struck with the death god. Shinigami had promised to seal and contain the demon. That meant that the container had to live. In the split second before they'd completely merged, the kami joined them, sealing their three souls together into one being.

When an infant's cry rose up from the back alleys of L2, the only person to look up and investigate was a blond street urchin by the name of Solo. Golden eyes ran a quick search of the area before grabbing the violet eyed baby and running for his gang's hiding place. No one deserved to be abandoned like that.

-

Seventeen years later, seventeen year old Preventer agent Duo Maxwell passed the last few minutes before shift end by throwing pens at the target he'd taped onto the bulletin board. With a few exceptions, they all clustered in the center.

The door opened and Wufei stuck his head in. "Maxwell, Une needs to see you."

"Aw man, she only ever wants to see me when she's got something for me to do," Duo groaned, tossing a last pen before pushing back from his desk. "I'm supposed to be going on vacation tomorrow."

Wufei snorted. "Just get going. You'll be on your vacation soon enough."

Blowing his comrade a raspberry, Duo skipped from the room and down the hall to the elevator. Within a few minutes, the meeting was over and the pilot was feeling a great sense of relief. No mission, just a request to keep an eye out for anything suspicious around the mountain lodge he'd borrowed for the weekend.

"Vacation, here I come!"

--

1. Forehead protector


	2. Weekend Memories

A/N: Thanks for the great response to the first chapter. I wasn't sure how well the fic would go over in this fandom, since it's my first posted there. As one can see, most of my recent work is stuck in with the Gundam Wing fics. So, to adress the pairings before I get a bunch of questions or requests, I've already decided on most of them. There's a pre-established relationship between Quatre and Trowa, and Wufei will not be paired, remaining loyal to the memory of his wife. Sakura and Lee are married, and Hinata is engaged to Kiba. As for Duo/Naruto/Kyuubi, Sasuke, and Heero, you'll just have to wait to find out. Any other relationships that show up will be decided on later, but I'm not going to go on a pairing spree setting up everyone with someone else. Groups of people just don't work that way. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Gundam Wing. Didn't get them for my birthday either. Meh.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Two

Weekend Memories

Duo was almost done packing by the time Heero came home from the office back to their split apartment. "So, Hee-chan, think you can survive a couple of days without me?"

Smirking, the other pilot smacked him in the head with a file as he passed. "I'm looking forward to the quiet."

The other man feigned chest pains. "Ah, the hurt, the agony!" His false moans of pain turned into a genuine yelp as a hairbrush collided with his head. "Hey, thanks. I was looking for that."

When he came back into the main room from getting his toiletries, there was a suspicious lump under his packed shirts. Smiling, he shook his head. _Heero_.

"Alright, I'm all packed," he announced, snapping shut his suitcase. "Now Heero, remember-"

"Don't send out the search party until you're at least five hours getting back," the perfect soldier finished with a snort. "Just get going, baka. Try not to get eaten by a squirrel or anything else."

Duo sent his flat mate an odd look. "Maybe it's a good thing you couldn't get away from work to come. I think you've been spending too much time with me." But then he grinned and tossed his braid. "Oh well. See you in a few days!"

-

The cabin in question actually belonged to one of Quatre's nephews, and was surprisingly small for belonging to a Winner spawn. Just two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen/family room combo with a balcony overlooking a forested valley. Amir Winner Ali was currently off to school in France, leaving it open for his uncle and/or his friends to use.

"Man, a guy could get used to this," Duo sighed, leaning against the balcony railing. It had rained during the drive up the mountains, so the air was now thick with the scent of evergreen trees and wet moss.

Heero's mystery gift had turned out to be a personalized pocket watch with the Maxwell church, as it had originally been, painted on the lid. His name and pilot designation were engraved on the inside. He suspected Quatre's aid in the choosing. It was sweet, and Heero liked to pretend to be sneaky about his courting.

As he was gazing down into the valley, something odd caught his eye. Maybe it was the angle, but one grouping of trees really looked out of place from the others. The bases were huge, as though each was centuries old, but he couldn't see them rising any higher than their neighbors.

"Well, Une said to keep an eye out for anything odd," he muttered with another sigh, this one not so peaceful. "I knew talking to Une would mean work for me."

It was already getting dark by the time Duo had gathered up some gear and made it down the steep hillside and to the valley floor. The Preventer issue flashlight made navigating the trees easier, but it was a lot harder to find the spot now that he no longer had his aerial view.

Something glinted in his flashlight beam, and Duo followed it until he found a small knife stuck in a tree. Crouching down, Duo stared at the thing. It was about the length of his hand span, with a cloth wrapped handle that was tipped with a loop just big enough to spin on a finger. When he pulled it free of the bark, his hand immediately grasped it in a comfortable and familiar grip. _Too_ familiar.

_/An older man sat next to him at an old fashioned noodle stand, grinning as he scratched at the horizontal scar across his nose. He wore an etched metal plate over his forehead./_

_/He looked down on a blond man who stood on the head of a giant toad, an infant at his feet. He felt remorse at having to kill such a courageous and honorable man, but a deal was a deal./_

_/Power coursed through him, his power, after so long. How dare that ichibi threaten his host, and therefore he himself? The badger would pay for his arrogance./_

_/A red-head boy stared at him in disbelief, a trail of blood running down from a cut on his forehead. There were dark circles around his eyes, circles that had been there for a long time./_

_/A group of children his age faced away from him, watching a dark haired boy throw shinai at marks painted on a tree. Each of the five hit their targets. They boy straightened up without expression, but the dark eyes that strayed to him called challenge./_

_/The same boy stood between him and the flying needles. His heart cried out as his friend fell, having sacrificed himself./_

_/He laid face up on the ground. The falling rain didn't bother him as he watched the boy hover over him, tears flowing freely down his face as he tried to stop his chest from bleeding. His lips moved, but he couldn't hear what was said./_

Duo forcibly tore himself from the visions, knicking himself on the blade. Cursing, he threw it as far away from himself as he could, not paying any attention at all to where it flew.

His vision began to get hazy, and he stumbled back until he hit a tree, slumping against it. There was pain, intense pain, as though he was being stretched. His skin felt prickly as power rushed through him. Getting struck by lightning would have been mild in comparison. Duo gave up fighting for consciousness and allowed darkness to overwhelm him. _Damn it, Une. After this, I am so going to haunt your ass._

-

Inuzuka Kiba stood up and stretched with a wide yawn. Having been training all day with Akamaru, he'd laid down on a tree branch to watch some of the new genins go through the traditional torture of chasing down the cat of the fire lord's wife. After they'd left the woods, furious feline in arms, he'd drifted off to sleep.

Down on the ground, Akamaru jumped to his feet, nose in the air. Before Kiba could ask what was wrong, the nin-dog had dashed into the trees. Immediately, Kiba was leaping after him. When the canine stopped, it was so sudden that Kiba almost overshot his partner, barely stopping in time to drop down next to him.

"What is it?" he asked, frowning as Akamaru began barking up a tree. He followed the dog's gaze up to where a kunai was imbedded about ten feet up. Walking up the tree, he pulled it free, automatically catching sight of the blood at the back of the blade. Maybe it belonged to the genins? Though why they'd be using a kunai when they weren't allowed to kill the cat... His nose caught a familiar scent and brown eyes widened. "It can't be... _Naruto_?"

The forest was empty within moments.


	3. Fox Tail

A/N: Yay, I'm loved. Anywho, things are beginning to pick up, meaning I get to pick on the characters a bit more. Not much to say this fine morning, so I'll just point out that I own neither series and that they would make great Solstice gifts. Hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Gundam Wing.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Three

Fox Tail

Duo groaned, wishing the drum line playing in his head would finish their march and move on. They weren't helping his migraine. Opening his eyes, he yelped, all thoughts of parades fleeing from his mind.

He was still in the woods, that much was clear to him immediately. It was also morning, the early light filtering through the tops of the trees. The surprising part was that the tops of those trees happened to be at eye level, and he was laying down.

Pushing himself back onto his legs using his arms, he rose above the woods. The ground felt odd below his palms and Duo glanced down to see why, and the glance turned into a full blown stare. Two orange-furred paws rested on the ground in front of him. Paws!

He needed to see himself, and now. Memory placed a small lake at one end of the valley, barely visible from the balcony. The pilot barely noticed as he knocked down the trees standing in his way.

Duo'd stepped into the lake before he noticed it, and had to wait for the ripples to clear before he could see his reflection. As the image grew clear, the valley shook with a howl of despair. The face of a giant fox stared back at him, red eyes wide in horror. Twisting around at the sight of movement behind him, he counted nine tails.

_Come on, Duo, wake up_, he thought with a whimper. _This is a dream, just a bad dream._ Now he just had to figure out how to wake himself up from it.

Wishing didn't work, nor did banging his head against the mountainside. In fact, that seemed to do more damage to the rock than to him. He lacked thumbs, so pinching himself was impossible, and biting his tails just resulted in a lot of pain and a mouthful of fur. Thankfully, the lake water served to alleviate both problems.

Through experimentation, he learned that if he sat at the base of the cabin's cliff, he was at the perfect height to glare through the balcony's glass doors at his cell phone, which was sitting uselessly on the coffee table and blinking to inform him that he'd missed a call.

_If I'm stuck like this, I am so going on a rampage on Une's yard_, he decided, flopping down in frustration. _See if she likes tooth marks on her precious antique fountain._

With an annoyed huff, he drifted off to sleep.

-

Tsunade couldn't believe what she was hearing. She'd long since given up on even the faintest hope of Naruto being alive, and now his fresh blood had been found in the forest.

"You're absolutely sure that it's new," she said, fighting to keep her voice level.

Kiba handed her the kunai. "See for yourself. It's still wet."

And so it was. Hands trembling, the hokage set it down. "We'll keep it to ourselves until there can be no doubt that this isn't just a false alarm. If it turns out to be fake, I don't want to needlessly raise people's hopes only to crush them."

"Understood," the jounin said with a bow. "I'll keep searching the woods and keep you posted."

With a nod, she dismissed him. Once she was sure that she was alone, Tsunade allowed herself to hide her face in her hands.

Five years. It had been five years since Kakashi had returned to the village with news of Naruto's vanishing. They'd assumed him dead and placed his name on the monument. When Sasuke had returned two years ago with Orochimaru's head and a summoning contract with snakes, he'd dropped it on her desk before immediately going to leave some flowers in tribute, an odd look on his face that he refused to explain. He and Sakura both visited every Tuesday to their teammate's empty grave, leaving a bowl of Naruto's favorite ramen as an offering to the dead. As it was, the two were currently on a mission to what remained of Oto, and due back any time. For their sakes more than anyone else's, she hoped Kiba's findings were real.

-

Fighting with the map as Trowa drove, Quatre silently cursed while wishing Duo could have gone missing somewhere easier to get to. Pluto came to mind.

When Duo had missed even his latest get-home time without calling, Heero immediately began to call the other pilots and top Preventer agents, Une included. The braided teen wasn't answering his cell, the homing signal in his GPS didn't seem to be working, and the locator chip Heero had hidden in his surprise present was insisting that Duo hadn't moved in almost two days. This all equaled to Heero going into paranoid Duo's-in-trouble mode and having to be sedated, which meant that he couldn't leave HQ.

So, instead, Une sent him and Trowa. _Yay_ for them.

Trowa's pickup came to an abrupt stop as the sometimes clown slammed on the breaks, visible eye fixed ahead of them. About to demand an explanation from his lover (because they'd set out at three in the morning without time for coffee and Quatre without coffee or sleep was nobody's friend), the blond noticed his partner's expression and choked off his tirade. Blue eyes followed green and went impossibly wide.

"What could have done this?" he whispered. 'This' was about fifty trees that he could see knocked down or simply splintered. And they weren't young trees, the oldest being nearly three feet wide. A couple of the larger ones went across the road right in front of the truck. Barely moving, he allowed his eyes to drop down to the map, which cheerfully informed him that there were no other roads through the valley and up to the cabin. "Looks like we go the rest of the way on foot."

Trowa nodded silently, taking the keys out of the ignition and reaching behind the seats for their bags. "Has he moved yet?"

"Not according to the tracker," Quatre said, holding up said piece of equipment. "Same spot as before. If he's holed up in the cabin with a cold and just dropped the watch, I'm going to murder both he and Heero in their beds."

The clown's smirk was there and gone in a second. "He would have called."

The blond wasn't mollified for long, and his grumblings were some of the only sounds in the woods, which in itself was odd. No matter what people said, forests weren't quiet. There should have been birds.

As they grew closer to the signal, the two split to walk a bit further apart, but still remained in sight of each other. After a few minutes of searching, Quatre called his partner over. "I've found his watch. Look at the belt clip."

It was mangled, and opening the cover showed the crystal to be cracked. The watch movement itself, however, still ticked merrily away. Swallowing his fears, Quatre looked up to more closely examine the 'clearing' they were in. From a center point only a few feet of where he stood right now, everything had been blasted or knocked outward. He didn't want to admit it, but he recognized the scraps of cloth tangled in the mess as Duo's clothing, absolutely shredded. The pieces of a GPS hung from an uprooted tangle of tree roots, and a cross with a broken chain glinted from the dirt. The only encouraging part was that there was no gore.

"The path leads that way," Trowa said, breaking the silence as he took the lead. "Maybe we can find some more information up at the cabin."

They only made it forty feet or so before both pilots suddenly stopped, each reaching out to hold the other back from going any further. Neither dared to so much as breathe as their eyes traveled up to take in the entirety of what they were seeing.

Curled up before them in sleep was a giant, nine tailed fox.


	4. Kitsune no Shinigami

A/N: Geh. Sleep deprevation is not fun. Even if the reason behind it that because I was reading yaoi fics at a time of night where I don't have to have another window open to quickly change too when my parents enter the room. So, despite the long hours of sleep that I lose to worshipping these series, I still don't own them, and only get to borrow our boys for sport periods at a time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the newest chapter. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Gundam Wing.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Four

Shinigami no Kitsune

Two hearts were beating hard in Duo's immediate vicinity. This much he knew as he slowly roused from weird dreams that, oddly enough, centered around ramen. Not that the heart beats weren't strange on their own. Since his 'foxification,' the local animals had definitely been keeping their distance. Except for other foxes (albeit smaller ones). They seemed to like him. But the creatures in front of him didn't smell like foxes. In fact, they smelled... _human!_

His eyes shot open and instantly caught sight of the familiar pair standing at the edge of the path, neither moving. He grinned. _Trowa! Quatre!_

Quatre mentally cursed Duo for being the reason they were out there as the monster's eyes opened and the red gaze locked onto them. Lifting its head, it bared its teeth at them. He clung to Trowa's arm, terrified as his eyes clenched shut. There was no way that they could outrun an animal that big.

Trowa, however, had yet to drop from the unspoken staring contest he and the fox had entered. It had yet to attack them or even growl, and almost seemed to recognize them. "I think it's intelligent."

Hearing the comment, Duo realized that they'd have no way of knowing who he really was. No wonder Quatre looked scared out of his wits. Slowly, he worked his legs under him and moved closer to his friends, keeping low to the ground. When it looked like the blond was about to bold, he stopped, sending a meaningful glance to Trowa.

Hoping he'd understood what the creature meant and that it wasn't trying to trick them, the clown nodded. "Quatre, stay here for a moment. It won't hurt me."

"Be careful," Quatre whispered, barely about to convince his hands to unclench from his partner's sleeve.

Sending a small smile over his shoulder, Trowa began to approach the fox, keeping his hands in view and his eyes matching red. As he grew closer, it lowered its head until its snout was clearly within Trowa's reach. He stopped about a foot away from it to give the fox a chance to smell that he wasn't afraid.

At first, it didn't look like it was going to do anything. Then, just as he was about to reach out, the creature's tongue whipped out and licked him across the face before he could respond.

When the fox moved suddenly, Quatre covered his eyes, sure that Trowa was about to be eaten by the giant creature. But when there as neither scream nor crunching of bones, he dared to peak through his fingers.

His partner was still alive and still standing there in front of the fox. In fact, standing was all he was doing, having apparently frozen in shock. His hair, however, was interesting. He couldn't help it. He started laughing.

_Mission accomplished_, Duo thought with a toothy grin, very dog-like. When Quatre didn't freeze up again, he took that as a good sign and stood up to his full height, towering over the both of them. Stepping carefully over Trowa, he bend down to sniff at the no-longer-afraid blond, who gingerly reached up to scratch his fur.

"You _are_ intelligent, aren't you?" Quatre asked, trying to stamp down his amusement for Trowa's sake. It wasn't working too well. The fox nodded slightly, seeming to keep in mind their size differences. "Then perhaps you've seen our friend. He has long brown hair and violet eyes. He was staying at the cabin up on the cliff and didn't come home."

Duo was stumped. Of course he knew where he was. But how to tell them that? Then he got an idea.

Tying to return his hair to order, Trowa stepped out from between the massive front paws as their owner went to sit, dragging two claws through the dirt in front of it, creating parallel lines. One set, two... four lines in total.

"The roman numeral for two?" Quatre questioned, starting at it. "Do you mean Duo?"

The fox nodded again before completing its drawing with an arrow pointing toward itself. Both humanoid pilots stared at the scratches, then the fox, and then the scratches again before Trowa spoke. "You're Duo?"

Wishing he could just talk, Duo nodded once again, glad that he'd been gifted with intelligent friends and that it'd been them that'd come to look for him. However, their kind of smart also meant paranoid, so he was ready for some test type questions when Quatre pulled out something shiny from his pocket. Squinting, he recognized his pocket watch and breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been afraid that it'd gone the same way as his clothes.

"Who gave you this?" Quatre asked, holding up with watch. He seemed satisfied when Duo scratched out a one, signifying Heero. "Which of us is a widower?" This time he answered with a roman numeral five. "Which one of us pilots Sandrock?" When the pilot-turned-fox butted him in the chest, Quatre laughed in relief that his missing friend was safe. "What in the world happened to you?"

Duo shrugged, unable to explain even if he could speak.

Trowa walked up to stand next to his partner, looking up at the-fox-that-was-Duo. "Your rampaging seems to have blocked the road up to the cabin. Would you mind giving us a ride?"

Their comrade stared at them for a moment before a slightly wicked gleam entered the red eyes. One after the other in a quick flash of teeth, Trowa and Quatre were thrown into the air, landing on a wide expanse of fur. Grinning, Duo glanced over his shoulder to make sure they'd landed safely on his back.

Quatre wasn't sure how a giant fox managed to look innocent, but Duo somehow pulled it off in response to his glare. "Warn us next time, you great hairball."

The amusement rolling off their shinigami was so strong that Quatre didn't need his empathy to feel it.


	5. Testing

A/N: Glad you all enjoyed the previous chapter, and I hope you like this next one just as much, if not more so. Oh, by the way, I've been pointed toward another Naruto, Gundam Wing crossover called "World's Apart," written by Meiren. I have read this fic previously, and would highly recommend. It's very good. Just be sure to read my new chapter first, to appease my inner ego. So read, review and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Gundam Wing.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Five

Testing

It didn't take long for Duo to carry them directly to the cabin's balcony, looking at the pair cross-eyed as they climbed over his head to leap from his nose onto the deck. Having safely delivered them, he shifted back to sit on his hind legs. Catching Trowa's eye, he raised one vulpine brow in question.

"Sally will be keeping Heero on sedatives until tomorrow morning at the earliest because he was going into a call frenzy over gathering a search party when you didn't answer your cell phone," the clown reported, reading the expression. "Relena's manning the phones should we call, and Wufei's keeping an eye on Heero to make sure he doesn't kill anyone when he comes around."

Duo nodded, satisfied with the information and amused by Heero's predictable behavior. Question was, how would the perfect soldier react to their shinigami's transformation? Would he panic like Quatre had? Seemed pretty unlikely. Heero Yuy didn't _do_ panic. Or would he Trowa's calmer approach? And then there was the possibility that he'd just start ramming his head into things. They'd already seen Duo's influence on the Japanese pilot after all.

When Trowa and Quatre went inside, to make coffee from the sounds of it, he flopped down into a giant pile of orange fur. If he was going to turn into some big monster right out of the storybooks, couldn't the body have come with neat powers like fire or telepathy or something?

His ears perked up at the thought. If he'd possessed fire abilities, he'd probably have roasted the forest by now. But telepathy required someone else to test with, and who better than their beloved empath?

Quatre nearly dropped the coffee pot he was pouring from when he felt a _nudge_ in his mind, as though a dog's curious sniff. He steadied himself against the counter as there was a second nudge, this one with a small sense of triumph.

Cautiously, the blond tried to send back the same sort of touch. The response sent back was of giddy joy. He could practically feel the tails waving around in excitement.

_Tails_. "Duo?" Coffee deeply forgotten, he spun toward the window, where red eyes stared through at him. He opened the patio doors and stepped out onto the balcony. "Was that you?"

"Was what him?" Trowa asked, following his partner outside as the fox nodded with a toothy grin.

"I think Duo's become mildly telepathic," the empath said with cheerful disbelief. "No words, not yet anyway, but that might just be because he's never practiced before. This is new, right, only since your transformation?"

_Agreement_ flashed through his mind as Duo nodded again.

"Maybe he was exposed to something in the woods," Trowa suggested, glancing up at the second pilot. "Could you show us the area where it happened? There had to have been something as a trigger."

Quatre nearly stumbled back as his mind suddenly flooded with the image of a familiar hand pulling an odd knife from the tree it was imbedded in. He could almost _feel_ the comfortable weight in his hand.

The blond was torn out of the vision by Trowa's hands on his shoulders, shaking him. There was clear worry in the clown's eyes. "Quatre?"

"I'm alright," he said, shaking his head to help clear the images. The moment Trowa stepped back, there was a wet nose bumping against his chest. "Duo, I just said that I'm fine. Mother hens, the pair of you."

There was an amused snort from both men.

Quatre pointedly ignored them. "Duo, is that where you transformed?" He felt _uncertainty _as the fox nodded again. "Could you take us there?"

Instead of answering, Duo stepped closer to the balcony so that his nose hovered just below the wooden platform. Carefully, the two humans climbed over the railing and onto his head, where they settled for a better view than the back where they'd ridden earlier.

Finding the place where Duo had originally transformed again as anything but difficult. The more humanoid pair of pilots recognized the spot as where they'd found Duo's shredded clothes and the pocket watch.

"This is it?" Quatre asked, peering down past the fox's head to look for anything they'd missed before. He grabbed a handful of fur to steady himself as Duo nodded. "Alright, let me down. I want to see if I can find that knife."

Once the empath was safely on the ground, Duo went sniffing for the scent of blood, absolutely sure that he remembered cutting himself on the weird knife. Trowa, resourceful pilot that he was, moved to sit just behind the fox's ears to avoid falling.

Keeping track of Duo's location from the corner of his eye, Quatre made to search the thick underbrush, shining a flashlight into them in hopes that the beam would reflect against the sought after blade. Coming to the edge of one bush, he blinked.

It just cut off, as though by a sharp blade. Looking around, he noticed that several others did the same. One tree even seemed to have been given the same treatment, creating an invisible line, the other side of which played host to a multitude of completely foreign plant types. The ground was even a different color.

Warily, he stepped over the line before taking in his surroundings in amazement. The woods in front and to his sides were completely different than what had just been surrounding him. The trees were noticeably older, stretching high into the sky with branches that someone could easily stretch out onto without fear of falling. Old gashes marked up the bark and he could swear that there were footprints in the moss on one tree.

"Duo, Trowa, you have to see this!" he called back through what just had to be some sort of portal.

-

True to his word, Kiba was scouting the woods when he heard a young man's voice call out below his path in the tree tops. He couldn't understand the words, which suggested that they were probably not from Konoha. (1)

Peering through the leaves, he spotted the top of a blond head and his heart skipped a beat. Barely believing what he was seeing, Kiba was about to leap down when there was a crashing through the trees and something huge emerged. (2)

The shinobi took one look at red eyes and waving tails before he knew all that he needed to. "Shit."

He bolted toward Konoha.

--

--

1. Kiba speaks Japanese, and only Japanese, as does the rest of the ninja community. The pilots were speaking English at this point.

2. Without a good look at his face, Quatre looks a lot like Naruto, especially to someone who hasn't seen the latter in a long time, or the former ever before.


	6. Kyuubi

A/N: Hey, new chapter's finished. Yay for me. Yay for you too, I suppose, since you lovely people get to read the result of my genius work (yes, I'm that humble). Meh, I spent way too much time wading through my business text book this evening. Someone needs to teach the writers English. My teacher too. There are dozens of typos on her handouts. Anyways, ranting about school aside, I hope you enjoy my newest chapter, new and old faces among the reviewers alike. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing (think the lawyers will notice the double negative?), so don't sue me. All you'd get is a handful of cats, one of which smells funny and gets hand fed, and a bunch of weird fabric.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Six

Kyuubi

Uchiha Sasuke was perfectly content to sit back and let Sakura give their mission report to Tsunade, staying well out of range. With how tense their hokage appeared, Kakashi had taken a single glance before announcing that he had to go feed his nin dogs, no matter the fact that they only hung around when they were summoned.

"So they should be sending the payment within the week," the kunochi concluded, handing over the written report.

Glancing over it in approval, Tsunade was about to dismiss them when Kiba ran into the office in a near panic, dodging the ANBU guards that tried to stop him. "Hokage-sama, the Kyuubi's returned, and it's just outside the village. There was a blond boy with it, but I couldn't get a good look at him."

"But the Kyuubi died with Naruto," Sakura protested. Upon his return to Konoha, Sasuke had told her about the creature he'd fought, and then they'd confronted Kakashi about it for the whole story. "How can it be attacking again?"

"We're shouldn't assume anything concerning the Kyuubi," Tsunade said gravely, standing up from her desk. "Kiba, find Jiraiya. Sakura, with me. Sasuke, front lines. No mater how the beast got free, the safety of our village had to be our first priority. Go."

The two men 'poofed' out of the room, Kiba heading to the bath house while Sasuke headed straight for the city walls. He could already see the fox demon rising high above the trees, fending off comparably small things, which he knew to be his fellow shinobi, with its tails. As Sasuke made to summon Manda, he could have almost sworn that he could make out a man sitting there, trying to hold on as the fox danced around his attackers.

Twin explosions to either side of him told Sasuke that Jiraiya and Tsunade had called their own allies. Too bad his snake was faster.

If possible, Kyuubi seemed to double take when it saw the three summon animals charging it. The fox took a quick glance down to its feet before taking a calculated step forward. Following the red glance, Sasuke jumped upon seeing the blond man Kiba had described standing just behind the massive front paws. It seemed impossible, but who else would the Kyuubi protect other than their long missing team member?

There was a puff of smoke next to him as Sakura appeared, having body flickered from Tsunade's side on their shared summon. "It's not attacking anyone."

_What_? Sasuke watched the demon's movements carefully. It was true. Despite being attacked, the legendarily blood thirsty Kyuubi was not attacking any of the shinobi surrounding it. And its defense wasn't all that destructive either.

"Tell Tsunade that I'll meet it first," he said, urging the snake forward. "Wait for my signal before you attack."

"But Tsunade and Jiraiya have more experience," his teammate protested. "You could be killed!"

"I fought his power last," the Uchiha countered. "So let's see if it remembers me."

It was with misgivings that Sakura went along with Sasuke's plan. There was no other choice, really. Both of her teammates were stubborn as mules. Especially when it came to fights.

Sasuke wasn't quite sure what to expect when he found Manda nose to nose with the Kyuubi. The fact that it didn't try to kill him right away was probably a good sign.

Inwardly, Duo was freaking. First there was the portal thingy, because that's just what it had to of been. Then there was dog-boy up about fifty, sixty feet in a tree, who proceeded to bounce around aid tree-tops like a flying squirrel. And, apparently, he had more squirrel-type friends who had sharp things and things that went boom, _and they were throwing them at him!_

Next, to add to the freakiness of the day, three more giant animals appeared out of nowhere with people on their heads. And the toad was wearing a _kimono_ and smoking a _pipe_! At least the snake, who was just a _little_ too close for comfort, wasn't attacking him yet, and no one had went for Quatre in his unprotected position on the ground.

_Breath, Duo_, he ordered himself, attempting to calm down enough to focus on the guy riding the snake. Black hair, styled in a way that kind of reminded the shinigami of a duck butt. Looked strangely good on him. Eyes… red? Had to be a trick of the light. Then again, weirder things had happened, and there was something familiar about him. (1)

"Who are you, and how do you control the Kyuubi??" the man called out, clearly addressing Trowa. Japanese. They could do Japanese. And 'nine-tails' seemed a fitting name.

"My name is of no concern, and I do not control him," Trowa said, standing with his arms crossed over his chest. "And manners usually dictate that you introduce yourself before demanding names."

En lieu of watching snake-boy turn funny colors or start to breath fire (he's seen one guy control shadows, so it wasn't that much of a stretch), he brought around one of his oddly dexterous tails to gently pick Quatre up from the ground, where he was in danger of being stepped on, and released him onto his back.

The movement clearly convinced snake-boy of something, because he stopped swearing and let out a Heero-copywrite 'hn.' "Uchiha Sasuke."

Trowa smirked minutely at his victory, an expression unseen by anyone other than Sasuke. "Barton Trowa." Hearing activity behind him, the clown went to help Quatre back up to their 'platform,' the blond immediately drawing the gaze of every single shinobi close enough to notice. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the empath said, staring back at Sasuke in confusion. "Is there something wrong with my face?"

_Sasuke, Sasuke, where do I know that name from?_ Duo pondered, moving closer to get a better look at the pale face that was apparently staring at Quatre. Feh. As though he could tell.

A little unnerved by the fox's proximity, Sasuke started to step back when a low growl stopped him. Laying a calming hand on Manda's head, he directly met the gaze of the Kyuubi. The vulpine face seemed confused as he stared down at the human. Then its eyes widened and it jerked back, nearly dislodging its passengers. When blue began to seep into red eyes, Sasuke found himself almost unable to breathe.

"Dobe…"

--

--

1. Welcome to the mind of Duo Maxwell when he's reaching the top of his 'Weird Shit O'Meter.'


	7. Return of the Fouth's Legacy

A/N: Sorry I missed yesterday's update. Had a headache the size of Alaska at two in the morning. Not fun. However, there was a spectacular storm that my went dancing out in with my costuming class. We all got soaked, but if you're going to get soaked at school, the costuming department is the place to do it. Ended up spending a good amount of time wearing a hoop skirt and ball gown. It was a blast. I hope you enjoy. Read and review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Naruto, but I do own this story.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Seven

Return of the Fourth's Legacy

It was a good thing that Duo hadn't mastered words yet, because poor Quatre would be as red as a tomato otherwise with all of the curses running through his mind. And with the amount of time spent with the Sweepers, he knew some pretty creative ones.

It was _him_, the boy from his visions. A little older maybe, but it was definitely him. Sasuke looked to be going through some realizations of his own, because his eyes suddenly widened and his voice croaked as he spoke a single word. "Dobe."

Some form of instinct rose up in Duo's subconscious in response to the title, and he found himself leaping at the man. /Teme!/

Caught by surprise, Manda popped out of existence, sending his rider flying, only to be caught in the fox's mouth.

Seeing it, Sakura screamed. "Sasuke!"

Quatre was equally horrified. "Duo! What are you doing?"

Sasuke, on the other hand, was laughing, despite the fact that he was in a position to be easily crushed by his rival, literally. He was laying halfway over a row of sharp teeth, the jaws around him only closed enough to keep him from escaping.

"Baka, let me go," he said, kicking the top of the mouth with the foot that wasn't pinned. When the fox didn't budge, Sasuke sighed. "Do you _want_ them to attack you?"

More than a little freaked about his actions but glad that the guy sounded okay (and he couldn't taste any blood), Duo found himself reluctant to release his prisoner. Still, Sasuke had a point.

Keeping a careful eye on the other two animals and their riders, seeing as they seemed to be the only real threats in the area, Duo settled down on the ground, dropping Sasuke between his front paws.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke untangled his limbs to stand up, waving to his comrades to show that he was alright. The two strangers slid down the fox's shoulder and immediately began to check him over, nimbly dodging his attempts to fend them off.

"Duo, what were you thinking?" the blond demanded, glaring up at the eyes that were swiftly turning purple, thus confirming Sasuke's theory. "You could have killed him!"

While the man was yelling at Naruto (it just had to be him), Sasuke took a better look at is face. Close up, he didn't look nearly as much like the blond shinobi as he had from a distance. For starters, his whole appearance, eyes, hair, and skin, was paler and just generally softer. Well, his eyes weren't too soft at the moment, but they had been when the man had been fussing over him.

Something about the blond yelled of breeding to Sasuke, used to the older clans of Konoha as well as the nobles he had to deal with during missions. However, there had been calluses on his hands when he'd run them over Sasuke's arm, looking for injuries. Both he and his friend, Barton if he remembered correctly, seemed to know Naruto pretty well. So where had he been for the past five years?

As Quatre's rant rose in pitch, Duo flattened his ears against his head. Why did all the blondes in his life have the ability to yell like that? It had to be a curse.

Speaking of blondes, the one from the giant slug was making her way over to them, and she didn't exactly look happy. The woman's pink haired companion didn't either, but she definitely looked more nervous. For some reason, he felt as though he should be running.

"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?" Pink called from just out of range of his paws.

"I'm fine," Sasuke called back. "He didn't even break the skin."

Both women took their turns staring at Quatre as they approached cautiously. Someone about him seemed to depress them a bit.

"So, was it just us or did we hear 'teme' being yelled before he nabbed you?" Blonde asked, hands casually resting on her hips.

Sasuke smirked, leaning against one furry, stretched-out leg. "That was the dobe."

Both women stared at him before looked up at Duo. Pink was the one who spoke. "Na- Naruto?"

The fox jerked back at the name. The sound of it triggered something in his mind, and he found himself shuttering as his body began to change again for the second time in less than a week.

Pilots and shinobi alike watched in a combination of fascination and fear as the giant fox began to shrink, blue overtaking his wide eyes as the orange fur began to turn blond, covering less and less of his body. The muzzle shaped into a human face and Sakura almost felt like crying as she recognized the features, most noticeably the whisker marks on each cheek.

Quatre and Trowa were horribly confused, and more than a little frightened. Duo was turning back to human form, but it wasn't his form. Would he ever be able to return to normal?

As the transformation completed itself, the last remnants of a red mist solidified into a loosely-folded red kimono. His hair was a lot longer than his teammates remembered, only the bangs hinting at its former spikiness as the rest trailed down around his shoulders and over his back.

The other pilots rushed forward to catch him as Duo's knees gave out beneath him, exhausted by the change but managing to stay conscious this time. Clinging to Quatre's arm, he stared up at Sasuke and the approaching women. What was happening to him? Where did he remember them from? "I know you."

They blinked at the confusion in his voice. Of course he knew them. Naruto had known Sasuke and Sakura for his entire life. He couldn't have forgotten them in only five years.

"Where are we?" the blond asked, who'd yet to introduce himself, asked, giving Naruto over to Barton to check over. "Why'd you attack us?"

"We've been attacked by fox demons before," Tsunade said carefully. "And you are just outside Konoha, in Fire Country."

Naruto's question, while innocent, made the bottoms drop from their stomachs. "Fire Country? Konoha? Where is that?"


	8. Introductions

A/N: I feel loved. Anyway, as those who have been to my profile recently know, I am currently in search for a good beta. This person needs to be a fellow writer, whether of fan fiction or not isn't important, but they do need to be well versed in my writing fandoms, and preferably my style. Email or PM me with a link to your work or a writing sample. Now, onto other business. I claim no ownership of either Naruto or Gundam Wing. I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Eight

Introductions

"Naruto, how can you not know this?" Sakura asked, getting the courage to speak. "You grew up in Konoha. It's really not funny."

The boy scowled, the expression strange on the joker's face. "No, what's not funny is the fact that you keep calling me Naruto and acting like we've known each other for more than two minutes. My name is Duo, Maxwell Duo, and I grew up on L2, which you could never mistake for a village in the woods. I don't ever remember being blond except for the time I had to bleach my hair to blend in among Cat's sisters and I'm pretty sure that I've never bounced around in the trees like Elphaba's bloody flying monkeys before. Definitely not laughable material."

"Duo, your hair's not the only thing that's changed," Quatre said softly. "Your eyes, your face…"

Naruto's tan skin paled and Sasuke noticed him looking just above his eyes, apparently staring at his reflection in the Uchiha's hai-ate. "Fuck." He ground both heels of his hands into his temples. "Someone up there really hates me."

Sasuke took a step closer. "Naruto, you-"

"I told you morons, my name is Duo!" the currently blond pilot snapped, fangs practically visible as he did so. "I don't care who I look like, or how many of you I've seen in those shitty, knife-induced dreams, but I'm not this Naruto guy!"

There was a moment of silence before Tsunade cleared her throat, drawing attention away from Duo. "Would you mind joining us in my office before a crowd starts to gather? Jiraiya's only going to be able to be enough to keep them away for so long."

"A moment," Trowa said, pulling a small, black band from his pocket. He shrugged at Duo's raised eyebrow. "In the circus, you never know when you're going to need one."

Nodding his permission, Duo allowed Trowa to plait his long hair, sighing in relief at the familiar weight. No matter the color, a braid always made him feel more like himself. "Thanks, Tro. Alright, Baa-chan, lead the way."

Trying not to react to the familiar nickname, Tsunade took front point while Sakura and Sasuke took left and right around their 'guests,' Duo's friends staying close to his side in attempt to keep him at least partially out of sight.

They hadn't gone too far when the white-haired forms of Naruto's two sensei blocked their path. Jiraiya slung an arm around his old teammate's shoulders. "So, what happened with the Kyuubi? I notice you've got some new friends."

"Just meet us in my office," the Hokage said with a tired sigh. She could already feel the headache coming on, and the paperwork that would only serve to make it worse. "You too, Kakashi. And start warming up some sake. We're all going to want it before too long."

"Hey, Baa-chan, can we hurry it up?" drifted up a voice from behind them. "This isn't exactly the warmest of outfits and I'm freezing."

Kakashi's one visible eye widened and both he and Jiraiya dodged around Tsunade to stare at the long-haired blond in disbelief. He stared back at them, taking in the sannin's hai-ate and the jounin's mask. Face blank, he turned back to Tsunade, who looked as though she were about to start twitching. "Is everyone in this village of yours so freaky?"

He found himself suddenly dodging as Jiraiya leapt to embrace him. "Naruto! You're back!" The old pervert was about to make a second attempt when two cold, metal cylinders were pressed to his temples. "Geh?"

"Step away from Duo," Trowa said, voice void of any emotion.

Quatre giggled, making the shinobi shudder. "Or we pull our triggers and two pieces of lead will shoot out and imbed themselves in your brain."

"Not that there'd be much brain left at point-blank range," Duo said with a snort, eyeing his comrades. "Tro, no falling back into Nanashi mode, and no Zero for you, Cat. It's just plain creepy." He kept staring at the two of them until they gave in and returned their guns to wherever they'd had them tucked away. "Now, for the last time, my name is Duo. Not Naruto, not baka, not _dobe_." This last bit was clearly directed at Sasuke, who'd regained his smirk. "So, we're going to go and have a nice chat in the nice lady's office and then me and my friends are going to have a nice trip back through the woods home."

By the time they'd reached Tsunade's office, Duo was seriously considering borrowing someone's gun and going on a killing spree. It'd be a short spree, for sure, as Preventor guns only held six bullets, but it'd do wonders for his mood.

Pink kept sending him these sorrowful glances while Sasuke kept on smirking. Horns kept trying to poke him, while one-eye (blond had called him Kakashi?) tried to pretend he wasn't staring at him from behind the orange book he'd pulled from nowhere. Blond actually looked like she might like to borrow whatever weapon Duo didn't and join him.

In the meantime, she made a bee-line for the chair behind the desk, sitting down heavily in it. "I should have never agreed to take this job." The woman took a calming breath. "Alright, I believe introductions are in order. I'm Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha. You've already threatened Jiraiya, my former teammate. The moron who _needs to put his stupid book down_ is Hatake Kakashi, and the brats are his former students, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. They were once the teammates of one Uzumaki Naruto." Coming to a decision, she reached across her desk to turn around one of the few photographs to show them.

Duo stared at the grinning face so like the one he'd seen reflected in Sasuke's headband. Reaching toward the frame, he paused to glance at Tsunade, and then picked it up when she nodded her permission. The boy, Naruto, had an arm slung around the shoulders of a younger kid in a scarf and goggles. Both gave the camera a victory sign. A paint bucket with two brushes sat by their feet, the same color as the spots on their hands and clothes.

"He… vanished from a fight when he was twelve, and would be your age now," she continued softly as the boy who bore the face of the-one-who-would-have-been-her-brother stared blankly at the picture. "He, Naruto, had a nine-tailed fox sealed inside of him."

"Well, I can certainly see where you'd make the mistake in thinking that I was him, but I'm not," Duo said, setting the photo back into the desk and lifting his eyes to eventually meet each of theirs. "So let's start over. My name's Maxwell Duo, and these are my friends Barton Trowa and Winner Quatre. It's nice to meet you."


	9. Who What Now?

A/N: Sorry it took this long to get the new chapter out. My notebook went missing for a bit. Embarrassingly enough, I found it in my brief case, just in a pocket that I don't use often. But I found it, so all is well. I'll try update more often, if not as much as I had previously. With school and the fact that I keep getting kidnapped down to our theatre at one or two in the morning, my normal writing hours, there simply isn't time. I'll do what I can though. So, you already know that I own neither Gundam Wing nor Naruto, but Christmas is coming up, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and I'm still looking for that beta. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the newest chapter. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Nine

Who What Now?

Sasuke was the first to reach forward and grasp 'Duo's' extended hand, going along with it as the blond pumped them once in the air. "Uchiha Sasuke."

The grin Duo flashed was painfully familiar. "Hey, sorry about the whole biting thing. I was instinct, I guess."

A dark eye brow was raised. "Do you normally bite strange men on instinct."

"Only when I like 'em," Duo quipped back cheerfully. "You know, you remind me far too much of my housemate, Yuy Heero. You both even do that 'hn' thing that can have a million and seven different meanings depending on tone, mood, context, and a ton of other stuff. Maybe you're related in an alternate dimension or something."

"Or something," Sasuke agreed, resisting the urge to shake his head.

"Now that that's out of the way, would you mind telling us why you're here?" Tsunade asked, drawing attention back to her. "And how you got here as well would be nice. The Kyuubi, the fox form you were just in, was certainly large enough to have been noticed a lot sooner than it was."

"To be honest, Tsunade-san, we're still not quite certain on the how's of getting here, and the why was purely accidental," Quatre said. Of the three, he was certainly the better spokesman. "Trowa and I came looking for Duo when he failed to return on time from a vacation and found him in the fox form. When we went looking for what we figure triggered the transformation, a blade much like some of the smaller ones that you were attacking with, I happened on what I can only describe as a portal. We passed through it and ran into a young man, with markings on his face, stationed in a tree. Shortly after, the rest of you were attacking."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I see. That must have been Inuzuka Kiba. I had him patrolling the forest after he found a kunai with Naruto's fresh blood on it."

_That_ got the former team seven's attention as Sakura rounded on her teacher. "Kiba found something that suggested Naruto was alive and _you didn't tell us_?"

"I didn't want to raise any false hopes," the hokage said with a sigh. Yep. That headache was going to be a long-term visitor.

"Still…"

"Anyway," Tsunade said, interrupting as she focused back on the trio. "Your mention of a portal suggests that you don't live anywhere near here. Am I correct in that?"

"We have maps of our entire world and there's no mention of any Fire Country or Konoha, not to mention the fact that the abilities you displayed earlier would be unheard of back home," Quatre said. "So the only logical conclusion would be that this is a different world than our own."

"And I take it that Maxwell-san doesn't normally look this way?" she asked, nodding her head toward the man.

"No, he doesn't," Quatre said, thinking. Then he went for his pocket, slipping a many times folded picture out of it and holding it up. "Second to the right."

Duo leaned over to get a glance at the photograph before wincing. "Man, did you have to use that one? I thought Heero destroyed all of the copies."

"Heero knows better than to go into my bedroom, or try to touch my company's computers," the blond man said sweetly. "Besides, Mariemaia worked so hard on those pajamas."

"Mariemaia is a psycho red-head who made a bid for world domination," Duo countered. "They were yellow and she made my buddy in chibi."

Tsunade smirked as she looked over the slumber party picture. "Cute. Work party, I take it? And Maxwell-san is the one with the braid and the sandwich?"

"Yeah, that's me, Agent Night of the Preventors and Shinigami of the pilots," the whiskered man said, returning the smirk. "And on my left and right sides are Chang Wufei, Agent Fire and our dragon, and Yuy Heero, Agent Day and the perfect soldier."

"Night and day, huh," she said. "I take it that the two of your work together in this Preventors."

"Been partners since we were fifteen," Duo said, nodding. "First in the war and then there. So, what's the story with this Naruto kid?"

"Well, as you already heard, Naruto was our teammate," Sakura said, stepping in. "He vanished after a fight when we were twelve, and we haven't seen him since until… well…"

"Until you saw me, I get it," Duo said.

She glanced down at her feet before continuing. "A fox demon attacked our village the day he was born, and the fourth Hokage sealed it into him. We thought that both were dead."

"If your Naruto disappeared five years ago, he can't be Duo," Trowa said. "He's been himself for seventeen years."

"It's something to think about," Tsunade said. "What do you suppose we do then?"

"We're unsure," Quatre admitted. "Even with Duo out of the fox form, he still doesn't look like himself. As you could see, even his bone structure is different. I'm sure you agree, Duo, that you can't return to HQ like this."

Duo sighed. "Yeah. You and the others would be convincible, but no one in the administration would believe that I'm me. I don't even look like a colony born. But I doubt your nephew would mind me hanging out at the cabin for a while longer. If nothing else, I have some normal clothes there."

"Since your transformation has clear links to our village, why don't you stay here for the mean time," Sasuke suggested, eyes unreadable. He didn't care what the dobe had said or whether or not the time frame fit, this 'Duo' _was _Naruto. As such, he wasn't surprised to have an arm slung over his shoulder.

"Sounds like a plan," Duo said. "And as long as that portal stays open, Tro and Cat can go back and forth so Hee-chan doesn't go on a global man-hunt looking for me. And with Relena's help, it would be global. She's a scary good tracker when it comes to looking for people. Even without her crown, she's got more contacts than Quatre, and that's saying something. So, where am I staying?"

There was a flash of triumph in Sasuke's eyes that only Sakura and Kakashi caught. "There's room at the Uchiha compound."

"Great, then it's settled. Now, I'm hungry. Any good places to eat around here?"


	10. Konoha

A/N: New chapter up and ready! Written from the hidden back stage of the theatre world and the bus moving through the mists of the early morning. Wonderful news is that my elder sister has returned for Thanksgiving. So, enjoy the new chapter. Read and review.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Ten

Konoha

As Sakura snickered at the all too predictable question, Quatre resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Duo, why don't you get settled while Trowa and I return to the cabin and report in."

"See if you can have a briefing ready for Heero by the time he wakes up," Duo added. "Might curb the crankiness from being drugged. Oh, and make sure he hears that I love the watch, which I wouldn't mind getting back now."

"Thanks for reminding me," Quatre said. He removed the gift from his pocket before laying it in Duo's palm.

Taking it, the L2 pilot gave a fond look at the cover, looking up at several sharp gasps. "What?"

"Your eyes," Sakura said, her own wide. "They just turned purple!"

Sasuke smiled inwardly as Duo let out a cheer. "I take it that they're supposed to be purple."

"Yep," Duo said, grinning. "I know they look blue in the picture, but cameras always turn them blue, except for the really pricy ones. So, food."

"We'll meet you here at seven tomorrow morning," Trowa said with a nod.

"I'll alert the door guards," Tsunade said. "Jiraiya, escort them out of the village."

The old pervert was about to protest when she started to crack her knuckles ominously. "Sure, why not. Well then, let's get going, shall we? And not pointing your funny weapons at me would make this a lot easier."

"That reminds me," Quatre said, fishing out his gun and an extra clip. "Until you get your own."

"How much stuff are you keeping in your pockets, Cat?" Duo asked as he accepted the fire arm. "You're not turning Heero, are you?"

Quatre only laughed as they followed the muttering toad summoner out of the office.

"Before I turn you loose on the village, I should warn you that we aren't the only ones who will mistake you for Naruto," Tsunade said, addressing Duo. "He had many enemies, but his friends loved him dearly. You're sure to cause quite a stir among your generation especially."

"Bah, I'm used to it," Duo said, waving his hand to clear away her concerns. "Right after the war, I generally got a selection of three reactions from people. 'Poor dear,' 'die murderous scum,' or 'my hero!' It's really funny when you get one from each group in an argument together."

Sasuke snorted. "Civilians. Come on, dobe. Since you pretty much have Naruto's body, let's see if you've got his taste buds. Kakashi can treat."

"Why me?"

"You skipped out on the mission report."

-

The hike back up to the cabin was a long one without the aid of Duo's giant fox form. Unsurprisingly, the road was still blocked, meaning that it was getting toward the end of the evening by the time they got there.

"Make sure you tell them to bring a chain saw," Quatre said as Trowa went for the phone. No sleep, no coffee, and far too many surprises. He was ready to curl up and dissolve now.

Nodding, the clown kept an eye on his lover as he dialed.

"Miss Peacecraft here."

"This is Barton. Duo's been located. He's alive and healthy."

He could _hear_ the young woman bounce. "Wonderful. I can't wait to tell Heero. He should be coming around any moment now. So, when are you bringing Duo home?"

"We're not positive," Trowa said. "There have been… complications."

"Give me the phone," Quatre said, reaching blindly for it, his other arm slung across his eyes. It was handed to him without hesitation. "Relena, this is Quatre. I'm afraid the situation here has, in true Duo fashion, gotten very strange. When it's safe for Heero to drive, tell him to find a chain saw and come down here. The roads are blocked. Wufei too. We may need his seniority. And maybe a diplomatic team."

"Quatre, just what is going on out there?" Relena asked, a little stunned. "From the sound of it, I should ask for your Maganacs too."

"Might not be that bad of an idea," the blond said, stifling a yawn. "Oh, and Duo liked Heero's gift. Tell whoever comes to call when they arrive so I can turn off the alarms. Night." He could still hear the former queen shouting questions as he hung up, instantly curling up on the couch he'd flopped down onto. His breathing evened out and Trowa knew he'd fallen asleep.

Shaking his head, Trowa put the phone back where it belonged and went to carry Quatre to bed.

Whispers and stares followed Duo and team seven all the way to the Ichiraku ramen stand, so the pilot didn't feel bad at all about staring right at everything and everyone.

"So, what's the deal with Mount Rushmore over there?" he asked, nodding his head toward the looming faces of the hokage, past and present.

"That's the Hokage Monument," Sakura said. "Those were all the leaders of our village. As you can see, Tsunade-sama is our fifth."

Duo whistled, impressed. "Hey, was Naruto related to number four? They look a bit alike. Same coloring too, if the guy in the picture in Baa-chan's office is him, too."

Kakashi remained silent while his students exchanged glances. They'd never heard anything about Naruto's parents or other family. As one, they looked to their former teacher. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Naruto's heritage is an S-class secret, ordered by the third after the Kyuubi attack," Kakashi said to end the matter. "Isn't that Iruka-sensei?"

Duo followed his gesture to a young man with brown hair worn up in ponytail. He recognized the face and the scar across the man's nose. Another person from the visions. This was getting just ridiculously strange. What was worse was the fact that he suddenly had the urge to run up to the man, Iruka they'd called him, and hug him. His heart instantly trusted him, cared for him, which put his war trained instincts up in arms. He stopped walking and stared.

When Iruka felt a tingle down the back of his neck, he somehow knew that it wasn't left over from the re-appearance of the Kyuubi. Someone was watching him, he turned and an image of yellow and red filled his vision.

Impossible. "Naruto…"


	11. Iruka

A/N: Barely over a week until fall quarter is over and I can say goodbye to 'intro to business.' Than the gods. Next time a take a business class, it won't be distance ed, that's for sure. Feh. Anyway, newest chapter is finished and here for your viewing pleasure. Hope you like it. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Eleven

Iruka

Heero awoke slowly, his mind fuzzy. That in itself seemed odd. One of the first things he'd learned from his training was how to be instantly alert upon reaching consciousness. Memories started to slowly trickle in, and he forced back a growl. Duo was missing and they'd drugged him!

As he pushed his fury down enough to pay attention to his surroundings, he heard Relena's voice speaking to him frantically.

"-reason to keep you here! You would have more likely gotten into an accident or shot someone than helped Duo when you're like this! Quatre and Trowa were sent out to the cabin, and they've already reported in. Duo's okay, but there's been a problem and-"

He cut her off as he abruptly sat up, his eyes snapping open as he grabbed her wrist. "What problems, Relena?"

The former queen gulped at the intensity of his stare. "They didn't say, only that it was weird and Une should sent a diplomatic team, a chainsaw, maybe the Maganacs… and that Duo likes the watch you gave him."

Sifting though the information given to him, he raised an eyebrow. "A chainsaw?"

"Apparently the road is blocked," she said meekly. "You're a lot calmer than I thought you'd be."

"I don't want to be sedated again," he said, pushing off the blanket someone had spread over him. "How long was I out?"

"About nineteen hours," Relena said after a moment's calculations. "It's nine at night now. And unless you want Quatre going zero on your ass, I'd suggest holding off until morning. He was just going to sleep when he called." At Heero's look, she smiled sheepishly. "Pagan says I spend too much time around Duo."

"I'll start making the arrangements," Heero said. He stood up, grabbing the Preventor jacket someone had taken off him and pulling it back on. "Have you already sent the report to Une?"

"As soon as Quatre hung up on me," she said with a nod. "She's arranging the team, and the Maganacs are on standby. All you need to do is get the chainsaw. Oh, and Wufei'll be coming as well."

"Then he can bring the chainsaw," Heero said. He tossed a set of keys to Relena. "Lock up when you leave."

"Where are you going?" she asked, jumping to her feet.

The grin he tossed her over his shoulder was eerily reminiscent of the man he was chasing. "To grab a helicopter."

-

Iruka couldn't breathe. The boy in front of him had to be some sort of illusion, or even a ghost. He couldn't really be standing there, alive with his team as though he'd never been gone. His stunned brain completely by-passed the long braid and kimono, and even the color of the eyes, and locked onto messy blond bangs, whisker marks, and the single necklace that hung around his neck, unnoticed by the confused wearer. Naruto, the boy he'd considered as his brother, or even his son, was back.

It was with the speed of a desperate shinobi that he leapt forward and gathered the teenager into his arms, tucking a blond head under his chin as tears threatened to fall. "Naruto, welcome home."

Trapped in the embrace, Duo froze, mind and heart arguing on whether to return the hug or pull away, maybe shoot. But then the man spoke and, against his will, he found his body relaxing. _Welcome home_. It felt right.

"Not the dobe, eh?" he heard Sasuke say from behind him.

Without moving away from the scarred man, Duo pulled his gun from where he'd stashed it in his obi and aimed it unerringly at the black-haired snake-boy. Sasuke, remembering what had been said of the weapon's effects, moved out of the way, blinking as the barrel followed his progress.

But Iruka had heard, and pulled away to hold the blond at arms' length. Now he noticed the differences, small as they were. "You're not-"

"They saw I am, my memory says I'm not," the boy said, gaze meeting his steadily even as small layer of shame tried to hide there. "This body agrees, and so do…" Iruka smiled encouragingly at him, urging him to continue. "So do my visions. Did- did you ever treat the boy who looks like me to ramen?"

Iruka's heart skipped a beat. "Many times. It was his favorite food. But if you aren't Naruto, then who are you?"

The boy smiled a bit bolder at him. "Maxwell Duo, at your service. I may run, and I may hide, but I will never tell a lie."

"Umino Iruka," the teacher said. "I teach at the shinobi academy. Naruto was one of my most _troublesome_ students."

"I'm sure all of my teachers would say the same about me," Duo said, now grinning. "Howard too. And G definitely. He's the one who started calling me Shinigami during the war, but that's Pestilence for you."

Iruka turned to the rest of team seven. "What happened with the Kyuubi? I was charged with keeping the students safe, so couldn't get out there."

"Well, he wasn't attacking for one," Sakura said, hands linked behind her. "Just a little lost. For another, you just hugged him."

Brown eyes were wide as they turned back to the nervously smiling Duo. Then he switched his stare from his eyes to his kimono and back. After a moment, he stepped forward, a hand under the blond's chin forcing him to look up. "Were you always human in your visions?"

Startled by the action and the question both, Duo froze for a minute before mentally cycling through his memories. "I- I'm not sure. Mostly, yes, but there were two… There was one where I might have been in that fox form, and I could feel such a _power_ in the other. I could see the fox form, and a blond man standing on a toad… I was about to take his soul in exchange for something. Why?"

Iruka was about to explain when a hand laid heavily on his shoulder. He looked up into Kakashi's one visible eye. "Perhaps we'd better not discuss this out in the streets. We were about to go each at Ichiraku's. Would you care to join us, Iruka-sensei?"

Seeing the other's logic, Iruka nodded. "Of course, Kakashi-san."


	12. Ramen

A/N: Yay for the new chapter. I would have had up it yesterday, but then it started snowing, so work was really out of the question. But now it's up, so all is well. Anyway, I'm glad to say that I am now in winter break, meaning no school until January! Yatta! So, hope you like the new chapter. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Twelve

Ramen

Duo resisted the urge to sigh when the woman working at the ramen stand took one glance at him before running around the counter to hug him. This Naruto guy must have had a lot of really touchy-feely friends. Maybe that was why he wore such a bulky coat. Padding.

"You're going to have to get used to this until a good portion of the village knows or you leave again," Kakashi said, catching the teen's look of exasperation.

Feeling pity for the pilot, Sakura pulled Ayame away from him and quietly explained the very basics of the situation. A moment later she was blushing and ushering him to a seat. "I'm so sorry, it's just that you look so much like him. It's on the house, for an apology. Otousan, a big bowl of our best miso beef ramen!"

"How'd she know what I was going to order?" Duo asked, blinking as Sasuke and Sakura took seats on either side of him, Iruka and Kakashi sitting on the ends. He had a good idea about what Ayame had hurriedly whispered to her father when the old man had caught sight of him.

"It's Naruto's favorite," Sasuke said, elbows resting on the counter and hands clasped in front of his mouth once the rest had made their orders. He still wasn't taking his eyes off of the dobe. Did he just nor remember or was there something else?

"So, Duo, tell us about yourself," Iruka said, leaning slightly past Sakura. "Your likes, dislikes, dreams, that sort of thing."

"Is this some standard format around here?" Duo asked, tipping his head to the side.

Sakura giggled. "Pretty much. Kakashi-sensei asked us the same set when we became his students."

"Alright then," Duo said with a grin. "I like a lot of stuff. The family that I've built, sunrises, the ocean, snow. Oh, and pranking." He didn't notice the way their eyes flashed at that. "I don't like people who think they're better than you just because they had money growing up, and I _hate_ war."

"Is your home country at war?" Iruka asked, hearing the clear conviction in the blond's voice.

Duo shook his head. "Not anymore, thank god, but up until two years ago we had been since before I was born. Doesn't help when you're a street brat growing up on the streets of a colony that earned the name of 'Hell in the heavens,' and that was one of the nicer ones." He took the time that the ramen arrived in to think. "Dreams next, right. To help keep the United Sphere at peace for as long as I can, so that there will be no more war orphans like me."

"Noble dreams," Kakashi said after a moment.

"Ah, no more than any other Preventor members' goals," Duo said with a snort. "It's practically in our mission statement. Course the language is a lot fancier, but that's bureaucracy for you. They always want it to be in middle English or something."

"Sounds like our council sometimes," Sasuke said, the tension broken. "Eat your ramen, dobe."

"Thought I told you to stop calling me that."

-

When the sound of chopper blades awoke Quatre from his slumber, he actually growled. "Heero."

"Sounds like," Trowa said, rolling over beside him and sitting up. The clock on the bedside table read two in the morning. "Try not to kill him."

"No promises," Quatre said as he god up and pulled on his pants and coat in preparation of going outside to maul- er, meet the other pilot.

They waited until the wind from the blades had died down before stepping onto the porch and approaching the helicopter, Heero stepping out at about the same time.

"Where is he?" he asked in place of a greeting.

"In another dimension," Quatre said flatly. He wasn't going to be gentle about the news if Heero wasn't going to let him sleep. "There's a portal in the woods. Have fun finding it in the dark. I'm going back to bed now."

With a tiny smile, Trowa clamped a hand on his lover's shoulder, keeping him in place. "Come inside. We'll explain over coffee."

"It'd better be strong," Quatre muttered as they went inside.

About an hour and two pots of coffee later, Heero was staring at the pair with disbelief. "Impossible."

"We have proof," Trowa said, standing from the couch. "Duo rigged up security cameras when he first got here."

"Why did you leave him alone?" Heero asked Quatre as the clown went to get the camera tape. "If these people are as dangerous as you say, you may have left him to his death."

"They had the opportunity to kill us and stood down," Quatre said firmly. "And they seem pretty convinced that Duo is a boy called Naruto Uzumaki, someone who disappeared five years ago. We saw a picture of him, and he looked almost exactly like the form Duo took after the fox. We made arrangements to return to the village later this morning. No need to make them distrust us by coming early."

When Trowa returned, Heero watched the giant fox appear in bright white and red in the infrared picture, getting a better look at the orange fox when it switched to true-color upon the arrival of daylight. "Only Duo would stumble into something that turns him into a giant, nine-tailed fox."

-

Sasuke bid the others good night as he led Duo down the street to the Uchiha district. The braided man gave an impressed whistle as they passed through the gates.

"Are you the only one who lives here?" he asked, looking around and not seeing any other signs of life.

"Yes," Sasuke said simply, not elaborating. Coming up to the his own house, he unlocked the door. "You'll be using the room across from mine so you can find me if you need anything."

"Thanks," Duo said cheerfully, hiding his suspicion. He'd never have made it through the war if he couldn't tell when someone had an ulterior motive. "I'll be sure to wake you if there's a problem."

So it was that he went to sleep in a village that was unsettlingly familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.


	13. Monument Chatter

A/N: Hey, shiny new chapter. Yay. Matches my shiny new glasses. My old pair decided to break yesterday morning, snapped cleanly in half. I'm absolutely blind without them, where I'm likely to run into or start conversations with support beams. Fun. So, thank the kami for one hour glasses companies. Cheers. So, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

P.S. I'm still looking for a beta.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Thirteen

Monument Chatter

It was after only a couple of hours of uneasy sleep that Duo woke up again,

knowing pretty much immediately that he wasn't going to be able to drift of again any time soon. Silently, he ghosted across the room, easing the door open without a sound. Pressing an ear to Sasuke's door, he heard the steady breathing of sleep.

Growing up on the streets followed by countless missions had taught him to move swiftly and unnoticed, as proven by the way he passed from the house and through the gates of the clan district. It was by following a half-formed memory that he traveled directly to the trail leading up the Hokage monument, leaving him standing atop the head that looked like him.

The view was spectacular, with the village's night time lamps lip and sparkling from the shadows. From the lit windows of the Hokage tower, he figured the old lady was still up and working. Maybe he should introduce her to Une.

Duo shivered, wishing that it was just the wind. Looking about the place, he was as comfortable as on any of the Sweepers' ships, where he trusted himself to walk around with his nose in some new toy's manual without getting hurt or lost. It was a level of comfort that he should _not_ feel in a strange place!

Wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't notice another presence as it watched him pace upon the stone head, muttering to himself in several different languages.

"Can't sleep?"

With a yelp, he spun around and dropped into a defensive position, groping fro knives that weren't there. Hands up and empty, Iruka stepped from the shadows. Duo relaxed, standing. "Yeah. How'd you sneak up on me?"

Iruka smiled, moving forward to sit closer to the edge. "I may be a teacher and out of most of the action, but I am a shinobi."

"Point," Duo said. He flopped down next to the man with the ponytail. "Still, I'm supposed to be the sneaky one. During the war, I was the stealth specialist. People are not supposed to be able to sneak up on me. _Heero_ can't sneak up on me!"

"I take it that this Heero is a generally sneaky man," Iruka said. Duo nodded. "He's your friend?"

"Right, you weren't there when we said earlier, the braided boy said, remembering. "Heero's my best friend. Always has my back, you know? We moved in together a bit over a year ago. I'd show you what he looked like, but Quatre took his picture with him. But knowing his over-protective nature of late, you'll meet him tomorrow."

Smiling, Iruka turned away from Duo to stare out across the village. "Is he _only_ a friend?"

The shove was predictable. "You're as bad as Quatre or Howard. And yes, at the moment, he's just a friend."

"I heard that conditional."

Duo hugged his knees to his chest, wishing he'd brought a blanket with him. He stared thoughtfully at a scar he'd gotten across the backs of is fingers learning how to knife fight with Solo. "He's been courting me, I guess you could say. I like him well enough, but there's… something in me that calls for something else. Unfortunately, I have no clue what that is."

"Could it be someone you grew up with?" Iruka asked. "Supposing that it is a person."

"Hope not," Duo said quietly. "Everyone I knew growing up is dead."

When Iruka turned to comfort the other man, he gasped. A stranger was sitting where his conversation partner had been, wearing his clothes and hairstyle. Wiry muscle replaced Naruto's bulkier form, and the visible skin was Uchiha pale instead of tan. The braid had darkened from blond to deep chestnut, messy bangs showcasing tired eyes that were still the same unique violet. Oddly enough, his cheeks were also still marked by Naruto's whisker scars.

"What is it?" Duo asked, blinking at him.

Wordless, Iruka pulled out a kunai, angling it so that the other could see his own reflection. Violet eyes widened and Duo jumped up, letting out a cheer. "Yaha! Shinigami is back!"

"Shinigami?" Iruka asked, wide-eyed. (1)

Duo dipped into an odd sort of sweeping bow. "That's me, mad killer of the colonies, when everyone who saw me died under my scythe. Got promoted from being Maxwell's demon. Don't worry, I'm retired from that job. Need to talk to G about my pension though."

Understanding, Iruka laughed and accepted the silent offer for help up. "Interesting moniker to live under, and very bold for a shinobi."

"G used it once and I guess it stuck," Duo said with a careless shrug. "So, mind helping me get back to the teme's place? I kinda wasn't paying attention when I came out this way."

"Snuck out?" the teacher asked with a raised eye-brow. "You're not a shinobi back home, are you?"

"Na, just your run of the mill Gundam pilot," Duo said cheerfully, peering over the carved cliff. "Sheesh, that's a long way down. Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

Smiling innocently, Iruka was walking backwards toward the cliff. Duo dashed forward to grab him, but was too late and watched in horror as the man disappeared over the edge. He shook off his shock and crawled forward to peer down, expecting to see a mangled body down on the ground. Instead, he came face to face with the grinning Iruka.

He blinked, rubbing his eyes. But nothing had changed. Iruka was crouching on the cliff face, body perpendicular with the stone, as if he was on a normal floor.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

Duo worked his jaw soundlessly. "I don't know whether to kill you for scaring me or make you teach me that trick."

Laughing, Iruka turned his back to Duo. "Here, get on and I'll carry you down. It's a lot shorter trip than the trail."

"Yeah, especially if we fall," Duo said, only half joking. Deciding that his instincts to trust people usually weren't wrong (but there was a first time for everything), he slid forward to ease down onto the other's back, wrapping his legs tightly around his waist and clinging to his neck as much as he could without strangling the man. "Alright. Drop me and I'm so haunting your ass for the rest of your life."

"I drop you and once Sasuke and your friend Heero hear, that rest of my life won't be very long."

---

1. Remember, Konoha has had direct dealings with Shinigami.


	14. Blondes are Scary

A/N: Greetings, my lovely readers. New chapter up for you. Sorry for the wait, but I just got a new beta and it took some time to coordinate. That and finals. So glad there aren't many for the techies in the theatre department. Cha. So, hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Fourteen

Blondes are Scary

Sasuke was just running through the gates of his family district when Duo and Iruka reached the cross-road. Seeing the teacher, he ground to a halt. "Iruka-sensei, Naruto's gone! He-"

"_He _prefers the name Duo," the braided man quipped, hands on his hips as he stepped out from behind Iruka.

The Uchiha stared at him. Not blinking, he stepped forward to look down right into violet eyes, his own turning red as he activated his sharingan. "You're back to your other form."

"Well, almost," Duo said, raising a hand to point out the whisker marks. "But it's close enough. Not as though a couple extra scars are going to make that much of a difference."

Deactivating his eyes, Sasuke began circling the other teenager, looking him over. The same height as Naruto, he just seemed smaller, more compact. As Duo turned to keep an eye on him, he displayed a grace that the blond had not had. _Beautiful_.

"Still a dobe," he said, smirking. "Why'd you leave?"

"Had trouble sleeping," Duo said, shrugging. "Met Iruka up on the monument and we chatted for a bit and poof, I changed back into my lovable, star-born self."

"What do you mean, star-born?" Iruka asked.

"I was born on a space colony, up there." The pilot pointed up toward the heavens. "Most of us pilots were, though on different colonies."

"There are villages in the sky?" Sasuke asked, skeptical.

"Big ones," Duo said with a nod. "Maybe I'll show you some day. Not L2 though. Maybe L4. It's a bit hot, but nice enough. Not to mention Quatre practically owns the place."

"We can discuss floating villages in the morning," Iruka said before Duo could launch into a big explanation of the colonies. "We should all be getting back to bed."

"Yes Mom," Duo said cheerfully as he followed Sasuke back into the compound, skipping.

Sasuke watched the pilot the entire way back, noting the differences and similarities between the dobe's two forms. There was no doubt in his mind that Duo and Naruto were one and the same, no matter their appearances or memories. He just had to prove it to him, and then he could do what he should have before they'd even left the academy.

-

Heero's self-preservation instincts were all that kept him from waking Quatre and Trowa at the first light of dawn to find the portal that separated him from Duo. It was almost eight before they emerged from the bedroom, the blond heading directly for the coffee pot, which Heero'd been keeping fresh so that there'd be as little delay as possible. Once the two had poured their cups, Trowa put the rest into a thermos for the hike down.

"Twenty minutes," Quatre said as Heero opened his mouth to speak. "Try to hurry me and I demand breakfast."

Heero looked to Trowa for help, but the clown just shrugged. When Quatre was in a mood, there was no helping it. And he knew better than to argue with his lover. The blond had worse forms of revenge than making one sleep on the sofa.

Once rested and caffeinated, Quatre was much more agreeable to setting a brisk pace down the trail to the valley floor. Seeing the destruction, Heero grew more and more worried.

"This was done by Duo?" he asked, staring at their surroundings. The patterns of damage looked like any of the millions of explosions he'd seen.

"Not all of it," Trowa said.

"There seemed to be some sort of energy blast when Duo first transformed," Quatre explained. "The paths leading out were Duo though. Now, the portal was… this way."

Quatre's Preventer jacket was tied around a young tree right next to the odd slicing of woods, clearly marking the spot. Heero approached it carefully, running a finger along the edge of the split tree. It was strange. The wood didn't feel cut, just that it was there on one side and _wasn't_ on the other.

They were about to pass through when Quatre's cell phone rang. "Preventer Winner."

The other two waited for him to finish the call, clearly from Une, before inquiring on it.

"Our help is here," he said, putting away the device. "I need to meet them at the road, but the two of you can go ahead. They'll recognize Trowa. Try not to aggravate them."

Taking the coffee thermos with him, he left. Trowa and Heero shared a glance before proceeding through. Barely a yard away from the portal, they were met by the same man that had first spotted them, this time on the ground.

"I'm to escort you to the Hokage," he said, holding his bear of a dog back with a hand. "Though I was informed that you were supposed to have a blond with you."

"Quatre is meeting with some of our people on the other side of the portal," Trowa said. "This is Yuy Heero, who came in his stead."

"Inuzuka Kiba, and my partner Akamaru," the man said before turning toward the village. "Follow me."

The attention they were attracting coupled with the number of people carrying weapons did nothing to help Heero's paranoia. _Children_ were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, some no older than he'd been when he began training with Doctor J. A pink-haired woman saw them and immediately vanished in a poof of smoke. And none of the other villagers seemed to notice or care.

He turned to Trowa, his gaze hard. "You left Duo _here_?"


	15. Second Courtship

A/N: Cheers for all, the new chapter is up! Very few pilots this time, but lots of juicy action. Hope you enjoy. By the way, for those of you attending SakuraCon later this year, keep an eye out for a female Kyuubi, because costume plans have begun this week. Yay! Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Fifteen

Second Courtship

Sasuke was already up by the time Duo woke up in the morning. Groggy, the pilot reached for the end of his braid to remove the tie so that he could brush it out, only to find the band missing and his hair already half unraveled. "What?"

A search of his bedding proved fruitless, as the tie was nowhere to be found. Duo scowled. _Teme_… Even if it'd broken, it'd be there someplace.

A pile of dark blue and black clothing waited for him on the bed-side table next to his pocket-watch, the shirt too large and bearing one of the red and white fan designs that he'd seen all over the compound on its back. Clearly a clan emblem of some sort, and Duo couldn't help but to feel that the Uchiha was trying to mark him. Scowling at the clothes as he pulled them on, he didn't notice as the kimono vanished into red mist, leaving no trace behind.

"You know, teme, we really need to talk about your fashion sense," he said as he made his way to the kitchen, where the clinking of dishes told him that Sasuke was cooking. "And do you have any hair ties? Mine seems to have done a disappearing act during the night."

"I have short hair, dobe," Sasuke said, turning away from the stove to face him. Dark eyes looked Duo up and down, and there was obvious smug approval in his expression. "Take a seat. It's almost done."

Duo forced down a sudden blush at the examination as he hurried to take a chair that put the table between him and Sasuke. Something in him felt fluttery in a way that he normally only felt when Heero was being particularly flirty.

Sasuke brought over two simple bowls of rice and handed Duo a pair of chopsticks. They ate in silence, the shinobi sending glances Duo's way the entire time. As the pilot took his last bite, he looked up to see that the seat across from him was suddenly empty.

It was too late that he realized that the chair he'd chosen, while far away from Sasuke, put his back to the wall. This was made all too clear as two hands planted themselves against said wall on either side of his head, the table being shoved back as Sasuke stood over him.

"Sa- Sasuke?" he stuttered while his face turned red. Damn it! Why was he having these kinds of problems around a practical stranger?

"I was there when my dobe disappeared, pulled away from my arms," Sasuke said, leaning in. "I saw his eyes turn violet when his blue and the Kyuubi's red blended. You might not remember much, but I _know_ that you are Naruto."

"I'm Duo," the (normally) braided man insisted, eyes wide. "_Duo_."

"You are _Uzumaki Naruto_," Sasuke said. He removed one hand from the wall to cup a pale cheek, amazed to note that his dobe's skin was actually a shade paler than is. "My rival, my dobe." He moved back, away from the table and shocked pilot. "Consider this the beginning of our courtship, Naruto."

Flustered, Duo was about to start tearing into the other man (never mind that his statement had put a whole migration of butterflies to flapping around in his stomach) when a bang and accompanying poof of smoke startled him out of it.

Sakura had appeared in the kitchen, not even making Sasuke blink, though he did seem to twitch a bit.

"Duo, you friend Barton-san, is back in the village, and-" the kunoichi stopped, staring at him. "Wha..?"

"He changed appearance last night, during a conversation with Iruka-sensei," Sasuke said nonchalantly, as though he hadn't just been putting the moves on the other man.

"Right…" Sakura said slowly, gathering back her wits. "Anyway, we should hurry over to meet them. Oh, and Winner-san didn't come apparently, but there was a brown-haired man with blue eyes in his place."

Duo's expression brightened. "Hee-chan! Knew he couldn't stay away long, the over-protective baka. Had to be sedated when I went missing according to Cat."

Sasuke scowled at how fond Duo seemed of this man, and the description of his actions sounded suspiciously like competition. "They can wait. The dobe still looks like a mess. Stay put."

He left the room, returning with a brush in hand despite the fact that Duo would have bet good money that he never used one. However, it was all too clear what he wanted to do and he didn't want any part of it. "Not a chance, teme. Back away from the hair."

"You look like something tried to weave it into a bird's nest," Sasuke said, advancing.

"At least it's not a duck butt," Duo said, ducking to avoid a hand. With the speed he'd seen the shinobi move at, he knew that Sasuke was humoring him. As long as it meant that he didn't mess with his hair, Duo wouldn't be forced to smack him for it. "I'll do it myself."

"Not a chance."

"It's my hair!"

"My brush."

"_I'll_ do it," Sakura said, intercepting Sasuke as he tried to make another grab for the panicked pilot, using a bit more of his speed this time. "Duo, my fiancé is growing his hair out, and I help him with it all the time, as with my best friend's, and her hair is almost as long as yours. Would you mind?"

"See, the lady comes with references and actually asks," Duo said, gesturing toward Sakura with a grin. "What a novel idea. Brush away, fair lady."

"She's also been known to break open ten foot chasms with her bare fists," Sasuke commented as he reluctantly handed the brush over to his female teammate.

"Nonsense," Sakura said, shooing Duo over to sit in a backwards chair so that she had easy access to his back. "I wear gloves most of the time."

The moment Sasuke figured that Duo's hair was finished (and that they'd made Tsunade and her 'guests' wait long enough), he grabbed Duo by the arm and pulled him into his embrace. The whiskered man flushes. "Hey, what do you-" _Poof_. All there were gone.


	16. Claim

A/N: Sorry to keep you waiting, folks, but here's the new chapter of the fic, so I hope you like it. Christmas was awesome, I must say, and my presents have been keeping me very distracted. Especially the dressmakers' dummy my mom got me. That and the iPod, which has rarely left a two foot radius away from me since I loaded it up with music. I was already using the dummy, which I named Nessarose on account of it having no arms, by the end of the holiday to make my female Kyuubi costume, which will premere at SakuraCon this year. Yay! Anywho, enjoy the chapter. Read and review!

"Return of the King"

Chapter 16

Claim

Wufei waited until Quatre got to the road before getting out of the company car. He'd yet to order a winter uniform jacket, and it was cold in the woods. "Do I want to know what happened here? You used the words Duo and weird together and that never equates to good things."

"Probably not on both accounts, but you need to know," Quatre said. "Get back in, and I'll take the passenger seat. No sense in being cold, and it's a bit of a tale."

"Let me get this right," Wufei said after a while. "He came in contact with a knife and now has even more capability for destruction than usual?"

"That about sums it up," the blond said. Both pilots looked to be developing about equal headaches. "So, brief me on the support Une sent."

"Sally's in the hazmat van, and Relena will be on her way in a couple of hours, though she won't be making contact until Pargan, who is with Sally, has declared it safe," Wufei said. "The chainsaw is in the trunk. More may arrive as the situation evolves. Oh, and Sally thought that we may need some changes of clothes, so they're in the duffels in the back."

"Five pilots, a doctor, and a butler," Quatre counted. "Sounds like we're ready to take on the apocalypse, then. Let's grab the others and head over then. But why a hazmat van?"

"Just 'in case,' according to Sally," Wufei said. "I don't understand that woman, or any of the rest of them."

"I don't think even I understand women, and that's with the number of sisters I have," Quatre said. "Shall we get going?"

For an old man, Pargan was pretty quick with a chainsaw. He'd wrestled it away from the other three with surprising dexterity, and proceeded to start tearing into the fallen trees, leaving them to hold branches steady and clear away the bits and pieces. Sally kept running back to bring the vehicles forward, but that became impossible once they'd reached the foot of the hill, as a rolling chunk of log was likely to do a lot of damage to them if one hit.

Leaning against a broken stump as they took a breather, Quatre glanced down at his watch to see how much time had passed. "Wonder how Trowa and Heero are doing."

-

Heero had found someone who could match him for force of glare. The blonde woman who had been introduced as the insane village's fifth hokage, Tsunade, sat behind her desk with rings around her eyes and strong arms crossed over her ample chest.

"Where. Is. Duo?" he demanded, punctuating every word as he resisted the urge to pull his gun on her.

"He'll get here when he gets here," she repeated for more than the second time. "Now, _sit down_ and _wait_."

Trowa had placed a hand on Heero's shoulder and was about to push down to get him into one of the chairs in hopes of avoiding conflict with the village leader when there were two poofs of smoke and a yell.

"-think you're… doing?"

Duo looked about his surroundings in confusion. This wasn't the teme's kitchen. But then he spotted two very familiar faces and let out a cheer.

"Tro, Hee-chan!" He jumped to greet them, but found himself held back by Sasuke's iron grip still on his arm. "Oi, let go, teme."

Heero's relief at seeing that Duo had been cured of whatever curse he'd attracted evaporated when the dark-haired stranger loosened his grip on _his_ shinigami's arm but didn't release him. It didn't help that both were wearing the same fan-like pattern on their clothes, and that Duo's hair fell loose about his shoulders, a sight that wasn't supposed to be public. Not according to him anyway.

Trowa and Sakura, who'd followed Sasuke to the tower, shared a green-eyed glance. It was clear to both that this first meeting between the two was not going to go well.

"Remove your hand," Heero growled, taking a step closer to Sasuke, a hand twitching toward the shoulder holster he wore with his uniform. "Now."

Sasuke smirked, pulling Duo closer to him. Freezing, the shorter teenager watched the confrontation with morbid fascination. "No."

With shinobi-like speed, the former 'perfect soldier' reached out and took hold of Duo's opposite hand, intertwining their fingers together and pulling it toward him, along with the rest of the pilot it was attached to. "I'm taking Duo home, to where he belongs."

"I won't let you," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing. "_Naruto _belongs _here_."

So entranced in the tennis match going on between pilot and shinobi, the others in the room didn't notice Duo's growing agitation until he screamed. "Shut up! I'll go where I want and it won't be with either of you!"

The shinobi stared in horror as a red mist began to gather around the teenager, the blue fleeing his eyes to leave only red behind. Duo wrenched his arms away from both of his 'protectors' and broke for the window. He wasn't thinking as he jumped out and vaulted from the roof, landing easily on the next one over, a good twenty feet away.

Trowa turned an uncharacteristic glare toward both Sasuke and Heero. "Don't follow."

It took all of his circus trained abilities for running along wire and jumping gaps to catch up to Duo by the city walls, where he looked to be struggling with an older man with brown hair. The red was only growing thicker around him, and seemed to be taking shape, most pronounced in the tails.

"Na- _Duo_, calm down!" the man was saying frantically. "What happened?"

"There was an issue between two of our peoples concerning him," Trowa said, landing beside them on the rooftop.

"Trowa, I'm so confused," Duo said, stilling in the man's grasp. "I've got to get out of here for a bit, but not home. I don't know who I am…"

"Then we'll go," the clown said, laying a hand on his shoulder. He turned to the brown man. "Where can we go and be safe?"

"The Akatsuki are still at large and they were hunting Naruto for the power of his demon," Iruka said, looking down at the top of the whiskered man's head. "No matter who you are, you seem to have the Kyuubi within you. They'd be after you the moment word gets out. Though perhaps Suna… But it's in the desert. It could take someone like you weeks, if not months to get there."

Trowa stared as the markings on his friend's face deepened. "Perhaps not. Duo, the woods. You, are you coming?"

"Someone needs to keep an eye on him," Iruka said. Quickly, they ran to follow the slowly transforming shinigami out of the village.


	17. Everyone Travels

A/N: Hey, sorry for the long wait, but I lost the notebook. Things that get lost in my room get eaten. It had managed to tuck itself under a box of cosplay supplies that I haven't moved since just after last year's SakuraCon. No idea how that happened. Anyway, here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Oh, and if you're going to Sakura this year, be sure to keep an eye out for the female Kyuubi! Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Seventeen

Everyone Travels

Iruka forced down his instinct to run as Duo grew, once again taking on the form of the demon that had killed his parents seventeen years earlier. Both he and the green-eyed man, Duo had called him Trowa, jumped onto the fox's back before it grew out of reach, grasping handfuls of fur to keep themselves steady as Duo made to distance himself from Konoha.

"Head east, toward the sun," Iruka said once he'd made his way onto the fox's head. "Try to avoid any other villages."

There was a burst of surprise with a hint of sarcasm that Trowa took to mean "there are _more_ of your psycho villages?" And he told the academy teacher such.

"Not shinobi villages," Iruka said with a laugh. "Konoha's the only one in Fire country. But there are civilian villages. Why don't you speak, Duo?"

Embarrassment. "He doesn't know how yet," Trowa said. "Though we know that he can. I doubt that I'm the only one who heard him shouting bastard at Uchiha-san. How did you meet Duo?"

"I was Naruto's teacher at the academy and I'm afraid that I mistook your friend for him in town yesterday," Iruka said. "Your name is Trowa, correct? I'm Umino Iruka."

There wasn't much other conversation as Duo ran, occasionally shaking his head, as though to shake out unwanted thoughts, and forcing his passengers to move onto his back or risk flying off.

-

It was early afternoon by the time they'd managed to clear the road and could drive the various vehicles up the hill to the cabin. Once the four had warmed up with tea afterwards, they shouldered their packs, Pargan carrying Duo's abandoned bag, and headed down the trail.

"I wonder if the baka's blown anything up yet," Wufei mused as they hiked. "You didn't leave any explosives with him, did you?"

"Just a hand gun," Quatre said. "Though with the type of village Konoha seems to be, he'll have no troubles getting them."

"Why would Duo be blowing things up in an innocent village?" Sally asked, worried. Her medical bag only had so much stuff in it.

"Because they were insisting that he's a boy named Naruto, one of their fighters," Quatre informed her. "They were rather pushy about it."

"Ah."

"Is that it?" Wufei asked, spotting the irregularity in the trees. Quatre's jacket hung a few feet away.

"That's it," the blond confirmed with a nod. He gave the portal an odd glance. "Seems a bit smaller than this morning." Smiling, he shook his head. "Must be my imagination. Shall we go?"

They followed Quatre through the portal, glancing out its edges with suspicion. Wufei and Sally had long ago leaned to trust the empath's instincts, since they were usually right. Pargan just didn't quite trust his employer's safety to a portal that may have been shrinking.

Without a guide, Quatre followed the trail they'd gone on the day before, using various pin-cushioneque trees as landmarks. It joined a larger one that was clearly beaten hard with years of footprints with a few pairs of handprints thrown in for good measure.

The village itself seemed to be in quite a stir as their group approached, shinobi popping around on rooftops and walls. It didn't take a pilot to realize that they were searching for someone. Before they could even think to talk to the guards stationed at the wall, the one-eyed man, Kakashi, landed in front of them.

"Where would your friends go to seek sanctuary?" he asked without pre-amble or explanation. "Duo and Barton. Where?"

"Duo goes to the Sweepers and Trowa usually returns to the circus," Quatre said, eyes wide. "What happened?"

"There was a confrontation between Sasuke and your Yuy over Duo, causing him to flee from the Hokage tower. Barton followed him out and now both have gone missing, as well as Umino Iruka, Naruto's old academy teacher."

Wufei's eyes narrowed. "What kind of confrontation?"

Kakashi glance at him, noting the new faces before answering with a question of his own. "What is Yuy's relationship with Duo?"

"He's courting him," Quatre said, a feeling of dread coiling in his stomach. "His words."

The shinobi's face was grim. "It would appear that he now has competition. Sasuke has made his intentions quite clear. Come with me."

-

After the first couple of hours, Duo had calmed down and his frantic running slowed to a determined walk eastward. His two passengers stretched out between his ears, keeping an eye out for signs of human inhabitation.

"How long have you known Duo?" Iruka asked idly, reminding himself to send a message back to the village as soon as they reached Suna.

"Almost three years now," the clown replied.

"That's not very long," Iruka said. "Your group seems very loyal to each other."

Trowa nodded. "One of the few positive things to come out of our war."

"Understandable," the teacher said.

"Why did you suggest this 'Suna' as a place to go for sanctuary?" Trowa asked. "What kind of place is it?"

"It's another shinobi village, and one of Konoha's allies," Iruka explained. "Their leader, the Kazekage, holds Naruto in high regard, and is one of the few people who stand a chance at understanding the situation."

"I should hope that he held no romantic interest in your Naruto as well," Trowa said dryly. The last thing Duo needed was another suitor to add to the confusion.

" I don't know if Gaara-san knows what romance is, Barton-san," Iruka said with a small smile. "Deep respect, yes, but not romance. Don't worry."

Listening in, Duo mused on the information he'd gathered. _Gaara_... The name was familiar, a nagging in the back of his mind. Who was he? Someone from his visions? Hopefully, he wouldn't end up being another of those brooding stoic types. He already had enough of those in his life.


	18. Beware the Mother Hens

A/N: Whee, they gave me sugar. Oh yeah, SakuraCon was godly and awesome. I stalked my Heero around the convention center and was given chocolate and ice cream before being turned loose as Duo once again. :grins: Now, this chapter has actually been done since... oh, Sunday (last, not this), but I've been thoroughly distracted by said Heero, so nya. Anyway, thanks for all of the lovely reviews, and I hope you enjoy the chapter. Oh yeah, I don't own any of the boy toys. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Eighteen

Beware the Mother Hens

Quatre was going to murder Heero the moment they reached the Hokage's office. Kakashi quickly filled them in on the situation, and while he probably couldn't kill Sasuke without some extra artillery, Heero was well within his league.

However, from the yelling and crashing they could hear even several floors down, it sounded as though someone had beat him to it.

"Of all the stupid, hare-brained, ill conceived, inconsiderate ideas, playing tug-o-war with someone's who's already confused enough is one of the worst!" There was the sound of a body crashing against the wall. "I'm not done talking to you, Sasuke. Get back here! And don't you even think about moving, Yuy!"

"The young lady certainly has a healthy set of lungs," Pargan commented lightly as they were led up the stairs.

"Haruna Sakura, one of my former students," Kakashi said, a trace of pride in his voice. "Currently studying as a medic under Hokage-sama."

"Good, then I won't need to hold back," Quatre growled, bee-lining for the office door. "Wufei, I need to borrow your gun."

"We are _not _going t shoot fellow Preventor agents," Wufei said firmly, a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Nor are we going to beat them into submission."

The Arabic pilot's smile was almost feral. "Watch me."

Just as he reached for the door knob, the wood cracked from an impact. More thuds followed, Kakashi grabbing Quatre back away from the door as it shattered, his dark-haired student flying into the opposite wall with a grunt. Sakura stood on the other side of the former door, fist still extended, the kunuchi quivering with anger.

"Are you finished?" Kakashi asked, still holding onto the blond man.

Sakura breathed deeply, calming herself. "For now." She turned her eyes briefly back into the room, and Heero visibly flinched from his place behind Tsunade's desk. "I'll leave him to you, Winner-san."

Heero swallowed, shrinking back into the corner. He could set his own leg, survive the self-destruction of his own Gundam, and live through Catherine Bloom's soup. An angry Quatre was a whole other thing.

-

When it got dark enough where even Duo was having problems seeing, the group of three settled down to set up camp for the night. Lacking opposable thumbs and being too large to help gather firewood ("No Duo, trees are not firewood."), the shinigami just curled up and watched the smaller humans work.

A loud rumble from the wall of fur behind them made them jump. Recognizing the sound, Trowa smiled, shaking his head. "I think you'd best wait until you return to your human body, Duo. Filling your belly right now would probably deplete the forest."

Pouting with a fox's face wasn't easy, but somehow Duo managed. Neither man fell for it.

"We'll be there in a day or two at this pace," Iruka said, watching as Trowa removed what he recognized to be some sort of field rations from his pack. The green-eyed man apparently hadn't had a chance to remove it after coming through the portal, much to their fortune. "If you haven't changed back by then, Gaara-sama might have an idea or two on what to do."

/Jinchuuriki/ Duo whispered, somehow knowing the odd word. Then all three of them paused, realizing that he'd spoken.

"Where did you hear that word?" Iruka asked slowly, almost afraid of the answer.

Duo's confusion washed over them as he tried to remember. A weight on his back, a pale-haired man in a bandana, and Iruka bleeding over him... /I think... Naruto knew it... and maybe, maybe he's a part of me?/

He tucked his snout between his paws, miserable. Things had been more certain during the war.

"On the bright side, you can tell Yuy and Uchiha exactly what you thought of what they were doing," Trowa said.

Duo huffed as the clown took a seat on the ground, leaning against an orange-furred leg. /That's assuming I speak to them instead of stepping on them the next time I see them./

In response, the woods were treated to one of Trowa's rare bursts of laughter. Catching sight of the ill look on Iruka's face, Duo nudged his comrade to stop him.

/Iruka-sensei?/ Duo asked, worried.

"My parents were killed in the attack of Kyuubi on our village," the teacher said quietly. "The thought of Kyuubi, or anyone in his body, attacking people... I'm sorry." He put up a small smile for the two. "It's not something that you should have to worry yourselves about."

A wave of protectiveness for the tanned man washed over Duo, and he felt that it must have come from the same part of him that had sent some of the memories. Naruto had trusted this man and cared a great deal for him. And while Duo wasn't sure if he was actually remembering things that had happened to him in some sort of crazy past life or if the knife had had a hallucinogenic on it, but either way, there was no need for the kind man to suffer.

Delicately using a giant paw, he hooked it around the surprised Iruka and dragged him closer until he rested against the orange fur as Trowa did. /We are not as young and undamaged as you think, Iruka-sensei. We're able to understand./ When the startled brown eyes looked up at him, he shaped his expression into a vulpine grin. /'Sides, we orphans need to stick together, right?/

Iruka returned the smile, albeit with a smaller one, relaxing. "Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Duo."

"I'll take first watch," Trowa offered, starting to climb up the furry flank. Once the clown had transferred to a tree branch to climb higher, Duo settled down to sleep until his watch.

-

Sakura watched the blond man with admiration as he tore the other apart without so much as laying a finger on him. By the time he'd finished, Yuy was a twitching mass in the corner. When Quatre paused for breath, their black-haired companion was ready with a glass of water for him and a first aid kit just in case he decided to use the glass as a weapon in place of the gun Wufei'd refused to give him.

"Never get between Quatre and his target," Wufei advised, stepping up next to her.

Sakura nodded. "I can see why."


	19. Jinchuuriki

A/N: Whee, new chapter! Sorry for the update lag, but college has been keeping me really busy this quarter, as has my new sweetheart, Michi, who goes by Lyn Archer on . Go read her stuff, it's fantastic. I'm looking for a new beta for this fic, details are in my profile. So, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. As always, I don't own our favorite pretty boys (or girls for that matter), I just get to play with them for a bit. Read and review!

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Nineteen

Jinchuuriki

Shukaku had been stirring in the back of Gaara's mind for the past couple of days. Why, when the demon had been silent since the day Naruto had died, the young kazekage didn't know.

"Is something wrong, Gaara?" Temari asked, standing next to him on the balcony.

"I'm unsure," he admitted. Green eyes scanned over the village before stopping to rest on the gates. "Shukaku feels… expectant."

Temari glanced sideways at her youngest brother, frowning. He had not spoken of his demon for years. For him to bring it up now, it had to be important. "Good or bad?"

"Neither," was the flat reply. "Just expectant."

"That doesn't sound all that promising," she said dryly, receiving no response.

"Kazekage-sama, we've received word from one of the outposts!" Baki shouted, running along the walls to reach them. "Something is approaching Suna, and it's huge!"

_Is this what you're waiting for?_ he asked his demon mentally. A satisfied purr was its answer. "Monitor its progress, but don't attack it yet."

The shinobi saluted and left, leaving the siblings alone together again. Gaara didn't look away from the gate as he spoke. "Temari."

"Yes?" she said automatically.

"I want you and Kankuro to go meet him," he said.

Temari blinked. "Him?"

Gaara smiled, a sight that made his older sister worry. "An old friend."

-

Duo decided that he didn't like deserts here anymore than he had on Earth. The hot sand burned his paws, and the few scattered bits of shade that a normal person might find relief in were far too small for him. His passengers, of course, just slept through the day.

The Shinigami squinted. A small village sat amongst the sand dunes, built around a tower.

/Iruka-sensei/ he called, rolling his shoulders in attempt to rouse his dozing passengers. /Come on, sleeping beauties, time to wake up./

"What is it, Duo?" Iruka asked, yawning as he grabbed a handful of fur to steady himself.

/Look ahead of us and tell me what you see/ Duo said. He felt the older man climbing the back of his neck.

"It's a Suna outpost," the teacher said after a moment. His eyes followed a hawk as it flew from the tower out into the desert. "And they've noticed you."

/Kinda hard not to/ Duo said dryly. /Any suggestions?/

Iruka shrugged. "They know we're here, so there's no point in hiding." He glanced down at the giant demon and smiled wryly. "Not that you'd need to. Try talking to them?"

/Maybe one of you two should do that/ Duo suggested. /They might find me a _little_ intimidating right now./

"Whoever speaks to them may want to do so quickly," Trowa said, also having been woken up. "Before we're forced to defend ourselves."

About twenty armed men and women wearing Suna's hourglass symbol stood at the edge of the small outpost village, watching the fox demon wearily. Iruka was pretty sure gossip after the brief war would have spread exactly what the Kyuubi looked like and what it could do.

"Please, we don't want to fight you!" Iruka called out to the gathering shinobi. "We just want to talk!"

Seeing that no one was going to relax while he loomed over the village, Duo settled down into the sand, resting his chin on his paws. A few people stepped back a bit when he moved, but seemed to gain confidence again when he failed to attack.

"Who are you?" their captain called up to them, stepping in front of his subordinates. "Come down and we'll talk."

"We'll come down when we have your word that we won't be attacked," the teacher countered.

The Suna shinobi seemed to consider the proposal before replying. "Very well. We will not harm you if you agree to do the same. This includes the Kyuubi."

Suspicion confirmed, Iruka nodded before he and Trowa slid to the ground, the Preventer staying by his comrade while the shinobi stepped forward to meet with the captain.

"Umino Iruka, rank chunnen, Konoha," Iruka introduced. "My companions are Barton Trowa and…" He trailed off, unsure what to Duo at this point.

/Uzumaki Naruto to your Kazekage Gaara no Sabaku/ Duo said, startling everyone with the name. /Former jinchuuriki./

Murmurs broke out amongst the Suna ninja.

"We're seeking sanctuary in Suna for Naruto," Iruka said, trying to ignore how odd it was to refer to his student in the present tense again. "But we don't know our way through the desert."

The captain regarded them silently for a moment. "The two of you, come inside. It would be best not to speak where ears can listen in. Uzumaki-san, I'm afraid that you must wait out here."

Duo gave an amused snort. Yeah, he didn't think he was going to fit into any of those buildings either.

"I'll remain here with Naruto," Trowa said, following Duo's announcement. There was no need to argue with the already confused man on something as little as his name. When he received an answering nod, the clown turned back to sit on the sand near the fox's paws.

-

"Kazekage-sama! Kazekage-sama!"

Gaara looked up from his reading, frowning as he turned his attention from tuning out Shukaku's growing excitement and the scroll in front of him to the pounding on his door. "Come in."

A panicking chunnin came through the doorway, a small messenger tube gripped in his hand. He bowed hastily before starting to speak. "Kazekage-sama, we've just received word from the fifth outpost that the Kyuubi no kitsune is approaching Suna. It's carrying two human passengers and called itself Uzumaki Naruto."

Green eyes widened. _Naruto?_ He stood, reaching for his robe and hat. "When did he pass the outpost?"

"Yesterday," the chunnin said, getting out of the way.

"And the passengers?" he asked. His teammates, perhaps?

"Konoha chunnin Umino Iruka and an unknown by the name of Barton Trowa."

The second name was foreign to him, but he recognized the first as one of the people Naruto had named part of his built family. And from what he'd learnt since Naruto's death, Umino would have nothing to do with the Kyuubi if he could help it unless Naruto was truly involved.

He glanced toward a map on one wall. A day's travel from the fifth outpost at Kyuubi's speed… The jinchuuriki gave a rare smile. "Tell the guard not to attack. I'll meet them outside the village walls myself." When he was alone again more, Gaara walked back over to his table, where one photograph stood out among the others. "Even after all this time, you're still Konoha's number one surprising ninja, aren't you, Naruto?"


	20. Meeting an Old Friend for the First Time

A/N: I'm glad people enjoyed the last chapter and apologize for the long wait. Distraction seems to be my muse this summer, so it could not be helped. Also, I am just starting out with a new beta, so hopefully typos will be fewer now. Anyway, I own neither Naruto nor Gundam Wing at this point in time. I hope you enjoy the chapter and leave a nice tasty review.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"

Chapter Twenty

Meeting an Old Friend for the First Time

Duo was being very careful not to step on his escort. Crushing a few ninjas underfoot would not be an ideal way to make an impression, first, fourth, or otherwise.

He had to hand it to them though. The three men the captain had sent with them were pretty fast, and had managed to keep up with his easy lope. And for short periods of time, Iruka left his back to run with them to make communication easier.

"Good thing none of the OZ soldiers had been able to run like that," Trowa commented. The clown was stretched out between the long vulpine ears.

/Considering these guys could easily outrun Heero? Yeah, very good thing/ Duo retorted.

"Have you decided what you're going to do about your situation?" the clown asked quietly, the question meant for the other pilot's ears only. "You've started to use his name."

A shrug rippled through the massive shoulders. /I don't know. I just don't want to think about it right now. I'll consider it when we get to Suna and I can get a decent nap./

Trowa chuckled, running a hand through the fur in front of him. "Somehow I doubt you'll have any problems convincing people to leave you alone for a bit of sleep."

/But I think that I need to have a chat with this Gaara before I'll be able to sleep/ Duo said. /Maybe he'll be able to answer some questions I have./

-

Neither Kankuro nor Temari wanted to be the first ones to step back as the massive fox they remembered from their first chunnin exam approached. Three Suna nin led and flanked it from a distance, while Iruka was practically running between the paws. Looking up, the siblings could just make out the reported unknown riding upon it head.

The party slowed to a stop just in front of them, Kyuubi kicking up quite a bit of dust. By the time it had settled, the fox's passenger had been let down to stand with them. Looking at him, Temari blinked. _His eyes... just like Gaara's._ Trying to regain her composure, she yelped as she suddenly found herself on the receiving end of a very thorough sniffing. "Hey!"

When he'd seen the two waiting for them just out of sight of the city, Duo had known that they were familiar. In an attempt to clear up the memory, he made sure to get a good scent reading on them, starting with the blonde woman despite her protests. _Wind and blades_, he thought. Finished with her, Duo moved to her laughing companion, only to immediately pull back and sneeze. The man stank heavily of ink paints. Probably what he used on his face.

"Told you that you stank," the woman murmured to the man, smirking. Oh, he was going to like her.

The painted man didn't respond. "Umino-san, you seem to have brought us some interesting people to see my brother."

"You should have seen their entrance into Konoha," Iruka said with a shake of the head. "They're looking to take temporary sanctuary in Suna."

"Sanctuary from whom?" Temari asked pointedly. "We cannot be hiding Konoha fugitives. Our alliance is fragile enough as it is."

The green-eyed man spoke up for the first time. "I assure you that we are not fugitives. As of this time, we hold no allegiances to any of your villages. Umino-san is merely guiding us."

"I sent a message back to Konoha from the outpost," Iruka said. "Hokage-sama will understand my departure, no matter how sudden it was."

"From what we remember of the Kyuubi no kitsune, it was sealed within Uzumaki Naruto, a shinobi very loyal to his village," Temari said, her lips pressed into a thin line. "One who was reported dead five years ago."

"Explanations will be given once we see your Kazekage," Iruka said firmly.

The four humans engaged in a short starting contest while Duo stretched, tails rippling behind him as his guards gave him wary looks. When no one else moved, he sighed and began walking over and past them, grabbing Trowa with a tail as he passed and depositing the pilot on his back.

"You need to stop doing that," Trowa said without any anger.

/I'm hot, thirsty, and hungry/ Duo said shortly, snorting as the party on the ground scrambled to catch up upon noticing his movement. /Waiting for our buddies to blink is not going to help alleviate any of those conditions./

When the city walls became visible over the dunes, Duo found his gaze locked on a single man standing in front of the gap leading into the village. White robes billowed in the desert wind and a cone hat dangled from his surprisingly pale fingers. But what really caught his attention were the green eyes and kanji for love partially hidden by a shock of red hair.

Gaara didn't move at all as Duo stepped right up to him, ignoring the wall guards' calls of alarm. Violet met green in an even stare.

"You still live up to your reputation," Gaara said, breaking the silence.

/I don't remember having one/ Duo said.

A cloud of sand gather below the Kazekage's feet, lifting him until he was eye-level with the fox without his having to bend down. Within him, Shukaku sat back, confused by what had felt like Kyuubi and its containing from a distance. Up close, he couldn't feel the separation, and there was more there than expected.

On the ground, his older siblings were just as confused. What other reputation had the fox demon had other than powerful and murderous? It hadn't been demonstrating either trait. A shake of the head from Iruka stalled their questions for the moment.

"Who are you?" Gaara asked quietly, eyes searching. "You're Naruto, but not. Kyuubi, but not. And... something else that still isn't quite right."

The transformation from fox to human was smoother this time, going straight through the body of Naruto to Duo's before settling, the mist-formed red kimono back in place. He watched as Gaara returned to the ground to stand in front of him. Trowa and Iruka hovered next to him on either side.

"My name is Duo, but I think I may be all three," the shinigami said, nodding his head in a shallow bow that wouldn't have been completely out of character for Naruto. "I seek sanctuary so I can figure out my past and present to determine my future."

Gaara smiled, the expression rare and welcoming. "Then I hope you find it here. Welcome to Suna, Duo."


	21. Welcome to Suna

A/N: So, clearly I fail at updating with any sort of regularity. But now that my most recent con is past and I'm not doing any new ones for the next, I figured that I'd better at least try to update some of my fics. For those who stuck around and waited, a million thanks to you. As always, I don't own Gundam Wing or Naruto and am only playing with them for now. So, read, enjoy, and if you please to do so, leave me a pretty review.

"Red and Blue Makes Purple"  
Chapter Twenty-one  
Welcome to Suna

Heero refused to leave the village after Duo's flight. At least until they knew where the second pilot had gone, at which point Quatre figured that not even sedatives and gundamium chains would be able to keep him from going after the braided man. But for now, they waited.

While Heero and Sasuke recovered from their various injuries, Sakura'd invited the village's other visitors to one of Konoha's nicer bars (largely because no one wanted to pick a fight in a bar full of shinobi) for drinks to numb the ongoing and likely upcoming headaches. Pargan was the only to refuse, preferring to remain in Tsunade's company.

"Iruka's a good man and one of our finest teachers," Sakura said. "He was our teacher in the academy. The boys couldn't have gotten a better person to guide them. Naruto or not, I'll be Iruka's already adopted your friends. He's like that."

"Sounds like Duo," Sally commented lightly, smiling. "I swear, whenever you need to find him on one of his days off, just look for a rowdy swarm of kids."

"I may have to introduce you to Konohamaru and his team," Sakura said, smiling. "They used to follow Naruto around like ducklings."

"A good person," Wufei said quietly, taking a sip of his sake. So much seemed to match with what he'd learned about their loudest comrade when he'd taken the time to do so after the war.

The pink haired medic nodded. "He was. Is? Anyway, I was too much of a Sasuke fangirl back when we were younger to notice much. I suppose that it's simply ironic justice that the one he ended up wanting was a guy, and Naruto to boot. Nearly every girl in my year surrounding it had a little Sasuke shrine in their closet." She laughed, eyes shining with the alcohol and perhaps something more. "We were all so furious when Naruto got his first kiss."

Quatre blinked. "I was under the impression that there wasn't anything between them before."

Sakura waved away his comment as he reached over to refill the man's saucer. It was clear to her that he didn't like being away from his partner when there was an unknown danger. As a shinobi, she could definitely relate. "There wasn't. It was an accident. Naruto was perched on the desk for one of their stupid glaring contests and some boy in our class bumped into him when he stood up or something. If it weren't for the fact that they were gagging in disgust the moment they got over their shock, it would have been straight out of one of Kakashi-sensei's romance novels."

A few of the other patrons glanced over at the explosion of laughter, but the foreign weapons and kunai pouch piled on the table kept anyone from trying to complain.

It was a slightly tipsy group that left the bar when Wufei reminded Quatre that they hadn't reported in since his arrival and that Une would probably not be sleeping until she had at least some news.

More familiar with the area, Sakura guided them back to where the portal was supposed to be. When they got there, the sight in front of them sobered the group quickly.

The portal was gone.

-

Duo stuck by Gaara's side as they were escorted into the city. The red-haired man felt _safe_ in a way that he hadn't experienced since his original transformation. Trowa and Iruka stayed near as well, something he was very grateful for.

Playing the oddly good host, Gaara settled them with glasses of a cold, sweet tea in the kage's mansion while food was prepared. For his siblings, they had the mental task of trying to mesh the two in their minds. Someone, this small and tired young man was also the towering and powerful fox demon.

"You said that you were 'all three,'" Gaara said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "What did you mean?"

Duo looked impossibly small as he huddled between his two level-headed companions. "At the start of this whole mess, I had these visions… In them, I'm human in some, the fox in others… and I think something else that's much more powerful in one. Each feels just as much a memory as the rest, my memory." He looked up at the Kazekage. "I saw you, but you were younger."

"How much younger?" the red-head asked.

"Eleven, twelve?" He reached forward, fingertips brushing against Gaara's forehead. "You were bleeding…"

"I remember that," Gaara said softly, trying not to jerk back from the touch and staring at the other man. Very few people had ever seen him bleed, and Naruto had been one of the few that had. It just served as another piece of evidence that Duo was at least partly Naruto. "Tell me, who have you become."

"Just a street-rat nobody," Duo muttered, retracting his hand to look at them blankly. He yelped as both Iruka and Trowa smacked him upside the head. "Hey!"

Trowa gave him a look. "Be glad Quatre didn't hear you say that."

Gaara looked at them thoughtfully, smirking inwardly when Duo cringed. It looked like the former jourikuri had managed to find the sort of loyal friends in this incarnation that he had needed as Naruto. And if this man was any example, they wouldn't leave him alone for long. "Duo, why did you see sanctuary here?" The simple use of Duo's name seemed to be a comfort to him, and he had no issue calling him by which ever name he claimed.

The question, however, made him sink down in the cushions, cheeks pinking.

"Trouble with suitors of the stoic kind, I believe," Trowa said with a chuckle at Duo's reaction.

Well that was easy to guess on, but only Temari voiced it. "Uchiha?"

"_And_ Heero," Duo muttered from behind folded knees. "When they started playing tug o' war with me, I got the hell out of there. _No one_ owns this shinigami."

It was a testament to Gaara's own level of stoicness that he only smirked for a quick moment instead of bursting out laughing. "My home and our village are open for you to stay as long as you wish. Though from what I know of Uchiha Sasuke, it won't be long after word reaches him of your location that he arrives."

Duo grumbled and slumped lower. "Gonna step on them the next time I change form. See if they can play tug o' war with me then."


	22. Desert Sanctuary

A/N: Almost had to rewrite the first half of this chapter by memory, which wouldn't have been fun. Luckily, I found the paper I'd written it on, which let me bring you this lovely chapter. I don't own Gundam Wing or Naruto, but what I do own is my lovely new progress journal on LJ. If you want to check that out, there's a link on my profile. It'll have notes regarding progress on my fics, sneak peeks for new ones, extra scenes, etc. Don't worry, spoiler scenes will be under cuts with warnings. So, I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

PS. If I hear one mention of 'team Sasuke/team Heero,' I may have to shoot someone. Just giving a friendly warning~

Red and Blue Makes Purple  
Chapter Twenty-two  
Desert Sanctuary

Trowa really wasn't surprised when the first thing Duo did in the desert village was vanish. Of course, it was easy for the clown to find his friend, knowing his habits all too well. But for Iruka, the disappearance was warrant to start panicking and dashing around the village to find him. Shaking his head, Trowa waited a few hours until just after lunch and left their lodgings at a sedate pace. He followed the sounds of children playing, the laughter and shrieks easy to track.

Their red-headed host was already watching them when Trowa got there, standing on a high housing ledge. Gaara nodded to him in greeting before turning back to where Duo was 'fighting' a pack of eight or so children between the ages of four and eleven. It was hard to tell quite who was winning.

"Barton-san, have you seen Duo? I've been looking everywhere-" Iruka cut himself off when he caught sight of the battle going on below and covered his sigh of relief with a smile. "Ah, of course."

"Did you expect anything else?" Trowa asked, just the faintest trace of amusement in his voice.

"I shouldn't have."

In the middle of hte battle, Duo abruptly changed tactics when the children tried to pile onto him in order to pin the former thief down. There were cries of surprise and dismay as he effortlessly slipped out from under them. It was pretty clear that at least some of the children had assumed they were actually evenly matched with this man who wore no headband.

"They won't be able to touch him now," Trowa said, nodding in approval. There was always something beautiful in the way that their braided explosives expert fought, between the feral twistings of a cat and the ghost steps of a dancer. Even with the training he'd received from G and later the Preventers, it was easy to see the L2 upbringing. If you knew what to look for, of course.

For Iruka, the appreciation for Duo's fluid fighting style was slightly tainted by sadness. Naruto would have charged blindly, likely only coming out victorious by creating a clone for each child. It wasn't that the boy had been weak by any stretch of the imagination, it was just that his stronger attacks were too powerfully destructive to use around children. The blond boy never had learned the gentle touch that Iruka had to have as a teacher. He sighed softly. "The more I watch him, the more things I see both that are and aren't Naruto. It makes me wonder who or what they belong to."

"Duo," Trowa said simply. He put his hands in his back pockets and started to walk out over them on a taunt wire. "They belong to Duo."

The teacher had a slightly bemused expression on his face as he watched Trowa walk out over the small group and step off the wife as though it were a street curb. He landed directly behind Duo just in time to block the throw of a small wooden kunai, grabbing it out of the air. As for Duo, the shorter teenager barely reacted. It was almost enough to make Iruka doubt the fact that they'd never received any shinobi training.

"You worried your babysitter," Trowa said when the children were called off by their parents and sent inside out of the sun. He tossed the stolen weapon back to the oldest boy before straightening up and turning around to face his friend.

Duo shrugged his shoulders with a casual smile, unbothered by the description. It sure seemed to fit Iruka, especially with the way that the ninja was being so protective. "You know me. I get twitchy when I'm the center of attention for too long."

The taller man shook his head and reached around to lightly tug on Duo's braid, pushing him back towards Gaara's home. He didn't envy either of the man's suitors if they ever got the idea to try and keep their shinigami from wandering off whenever he felt like it. Duo's response would be interesting to watch. From a safe distance. "Have you had enough to drink?"

"Yeah. One of the moms was passing around cups of cold juice and gave me one too," Duo said, rolling his eyes at Trowa's mother hen act. Well, it wasn't like Quatre was there to do it. He waved up to where Iruka was keeping an eye on them, crossing his arms behind his head casually. "You know, a guy could get used to this place. People seem pretty friendly."

Trowa stopped walking, green eyes sharpening as they looked at Duo. "You're not considering staying here, are you?" If Duo said yes, hew as going to bundle him up in one of the carpets hanging nearby and carry him back to that damned portal. They could handle his outrage and retaliation pranks when it came to then. "We've been here less than a day and don't know their full motives."

"I'm not some greenhorn, Tro; I know. It just feels like I can trust the guy. And he hasn't been acting like he expects me to suddenly become that Naruto kid, or forget everything that's happened like a good little pilot. It's nice." Duo glanced back over his shoulder at him, grinning. "Don't worry, clown-boy. I may be impulsive, but I know better than to risk bringing down the wrath of blondy on my head by deciding to stay without telling him first. In person."

"He would bring the helicopter through the portal, fly here, tie a rope around your ankle, and drag you home through the desert." Never once in his prediction did Trowa leave off the use of his monotone, keeping his amusement at the way Duo blanched completely hidden. He nudged him to start walking again. "Move. I don't want to explain how I let you get heatstroke."

Duo stumbled a bit before his feet caught up and he was able to walk properly. He tried to pause after a few steps, but the iron hand on his shoulder wouldn't allow it.

"He brought a helicopter?"


	23. The Young and the Furious

A/N: So, stage one of my plan to update my four current fics by Christmas is complete. Thus, there is the new chapter of this fic. For those on the US west coast who read the fic right away, I'd suggest going outside and trying to find the moon first. It's just vanished here for the eclipse, and it's more than a little spooky. Anyway, for everyone else, if you haven't already gone to poke at my new website and progress journal, I would highly suggest it. Both are linked in my profile.

Red and Blue Makes Purple

Chapter Twenty-three

The Young and the Furious

Being half of the reason that Duo had run, Sasuke wasn't given a choice on whether or not he wanted to host their guests from the other side of the now non-existent portal. He was just fortunate that the grounds were large enough that they could be given several rooms, allowing Heero refuge from Quatre's anger. For a man who normally appeared to be sweet and rather unassuming, he could turn and become absolutely terrifying on a moment's notice. The other pilots were used to it, but that didn't lesson the effect one bit, at least not when you were the target of his rage.

The dark-haired pilot paced in his room, fists white knuckled as he clutched the pocket watch in one hand. Wufei had found it on the ground after Duo's flight and brought it back to him. While Heero would have preferred it to be with his intended, it was a better alternative than for that bastard to have found it and been allowed to have anything of Duo's.

Heero growled at the thought of their protesting host, teeth bared to the empty room. Things had been going so well before this had happened. He'd been learning to show Duo how much he cared for him. They'd gotten closer, closer than he'd ever been to anyone before. Then _he_ had to swoop in when Duo was vulnerable and take advantage of his partner's confusion. And now Duo was angry enough with him that he'd run!

He lashed out against the innocent wall with a fist, but somehow the tearing paper wasn't nearly as satisfying as he'd hoped. Worthless. _This_ would not bring Duo back to him.

Outside in the courtyard, Sasuke wasn't faring any better with the state of his temper. He had already shattered a number of training posts, and the one his fists were beating against was flinging out large splinters already. The ninja drew back only to create a glowing ball of chakra in his hands, the chirping sound of a chidori filling the quiet courtyard before he thrust it into the poor pole. Needless to say, it didn't survive. Unfortunately, it did little to sooth his temper either.

He'd waited five years for Naruto to come back, and he hadn't lost any of his feelings for the other ninja, no matter what he called himself now. Sasuke could see that he was still the same person. He _would_ have him, just as soon as he got this stupid Yuy out of the way. The man couldn't even use chakra. He was more useless than Lee. At least the spandex loving nutcase was powerful enough to make up for his 'disability,' and he'd helped Sakura get over her silly crush on Sasuke. Yuy wouldn't even stand five seconds against the Akatsuki if they found out that Naruto was back and alive. At least Sasuke stood a chance of being able to protect him.

How could he show Naru- no, Duo, how much he was wasting his time on Yuy? He couldn't attack the fool outright without making himself look bad, and it risked bringing up the wrong memories. Eventually, Sasuke hoped that Duo regained all of his memories, but he wanted the positive ones to come back first. If Yuy was going to make his silly attempt at courting Duo, then he would just have to beat him at his own game.

Of course, it was of no surprise that both men were thoroughly exhausted by morning since neither of them had slept that much. And Tsunade just couldn't help but to feel smug about the fact when she called them to her office. Even her hangover couldn't ruin her mood. Not with the mutual hate radiating off the both of them and the knowledge of what she was about to do.

"Uchiha, you and your team are in charge of protecting our guests until they are able to return home to their world," the hokage said, a smile on her lips. "You in particular will tend to the needs of Yuy and Winner. Haruno will be showing our medical facilities to Po and hopefully exchanging information. Chang and Pagan will be with me, discussing possible alliances until we can get into contact with the leaders of their world." She gave him a sharp look when it looked like Sasuke was about to protest the arrangement. "There will be no trades, and I expect you to be on your best behavior to avoid jeopardizing our chances at a treaty." With her ninja giving her a grudging nod of acceptance, she just had one pain in the ass glaring at her. "Yuy. If you attack one of my citizens, I have no problem with giving you over to Winner, as a courtesy to your people. But don't test me."

Heero's glare turned colder, but while the woman held no authority over him, it was... unwise to upset Quatre further than he already had, especially when it was clear that the locals would turn a blind eye to anything the blond did. And Quatre got vengeful when it came down to it, and Heero was already on his shit list for the fight over Duo. He gave a reluctant nod, staying silent and stony until Tsunade dismissed them with a sound of disgust.

The moment that the door had closed behind the two of them, Sasuke had Heero pinned against the wall, and there was a cold gun barrel pressed against the ninja's head. They locked gazes, a clashing of fire and ice.

"Think about touching him, and I'll render you incapable of breathing," Sasuke said with a growl, not budging no matter how obviously the thing in Heero's hand was a weapon.

Likewise, Heero wasn't about to step down even with the hand around his neck. "I should say the same to you. You've already almost killed him once. What's to stop you from doing it again?"

If Quatre hadn't chosen that instant to come up the steps, they'd have likely killed each other, danger to the hoped for alliance or not. Seeing him, both men stiffened. Quatre hadn't looked so terrifying when he'd been under _Zero_. "_Children_," he growled, striding forward and shoving them apart none too gently. "If I see the two of you so much as kick each other under the table, I'm going to see that neither of you so much as get to speak to Duo again."

After a minute of horrified silence, Heero was the first to speak, breaking away from Quatre's hold to step back away from them. "He's my partner."

"You think I can't put in a word to Une if I think I need to, for Duo's sake?" the blond asked with an icy glare. "You're acting like a spoiled child whose puppy is playing with the other kid. Well guess what, Yuy. You don't own Duo, and neither do you, Uchiha. He's a grown man who can make his own choices. And if that choice is to transfer to South America after this bullshit, I would not be surprised."

The two suitors glanced at each other for a moment, hatred still strong in their eyes, but so was the plan that they came up with nearly at the same time. They would each just have to get to Duo. _First_.


End file.
